Rclone - rsync for cloud storage

Rclone is a really cool command line tool that can sync files and directories too and from many sources. A full list of sources can be found on their official website.

I personally use it for syncing local backups to Backblaze B2.

Installation

There are a few ways to install but I prefer the script install:

To install rclone on Linux/macOS/BSD systems, run:

    $ curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

Configuration

The easiest way to configure and get up and running is by:

    $ rclone config

And for my case I follow the Backblaze B2 steps:

(Steps extracted from Restic’s site)

    No remotes found - make a new one
    n) New remote
    q) Quit config
    n/q> n
    name> remote
    Type of storage to configure.
    Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
    [snip]
    XX / Backblaze B2
    \ "b2"
    [snip]
    Storage> b2
    Account ID or Application Key ID
    account> 123456789abc
    Application Key
    key> 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789
    Endpoint for the service - leave blank normally.
    endpoint>
    Remote config
    --------------------
    [remote]
    account = 123456789abc
    key = 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789
    endpoint =
    --------------------
    y) Yes this is OK
    e) Edit this remote
    d) Delete this remote
    y/e/d> y

This remote is called remote and can now be used like this

See all buckets

    $ rclone lsd remote:

Create a new bucket

    $ rclone mkdir remote:bucket

List the contents of a bucket

    $ rclone ls remote:bucket

Sync /home/local/directory to the remote bucket, deleting any excess files in the bucket.

    $ rclone sync /home/local/directory remote:bucket

Disclosures

Anything you sync without encryption has the potential of being publicly available and read in clear text. I recommend using encryption on any data that is synced to a publicly accessible storage.

Additionally, when using B2 storage please understand their access rules so that you can keep the repository private.