Cheatsheet

A quick reference for the most useful rclone commands and patterns.

Core Commands

Command	What it does
`rclone copy src dst`	Copy files from source to destination
`rclone sync src dst`	Make destination identical to source (deletes extra files)
`rclone move src dst`	Move files from source to destination
`rclone delete remote:path`	Delete files at path
`rclone purge remote:path`	Delete path and all contents
`rclone mkdir remote:path`	Create a directory
`rclone rmdir remote:path`	Remove an empty directory
`rclone check src dst`	Check if files match between source and destination
`rclone ls remote:path`	List files with size
`rclone lsd remote:path`	List directories only
`rclone lsf remote:path`	List files and directories in parseable format
`rclone size remote:path`	Get total size and file count
`rclone tree remote:path`	Show directory tree
`rclone cat remote:file`	Output file contents
`rclone md5sum remote:path`	Get MD5 checksums

Configuration

rclone config                    # Interactive config wizard
rclone config create name type   # Create a new remote
rclone config delete name        # Delete a remote
rclone config show               # Show all remotes
rclone config file               # Show config file path
rclone listremotes               # List all configured remotes

Essential Flags

--dry-run          # Preview without making changes (ALWAYS use first!)
-v / --verbose     # Show progress and details
-vv                # Extra verbose
-P / --progress    # Show real-time transfer progress
--stats 1s         # Show stats every second
-i / --interactive # Confirm before each action
--log-file FILE    # Write logs to file

Performance Tuning

--transfers N         # Parallel file transfers (default: 4)
--checkers N          # Parallel file checkers (default: 8)
--buffer-size SIZE    # In-memory buffer per transfer (default: 16M)
--fast-list           # Use fewer API calls (faster for large dirs)
--multi-thread-streams N  # Parallel streams per file (default: 4)
--drive-chunk-size SIZE   # Chunk size for Google Drive (default: 8M)

# High-performance transfer
rclone copy src dst --transfers 16 --checkers 32 --fast-list -P

For more real-world examples of performant commands, check out Templates

Filtering Files

--include "PATTERN"    # Include files matching pattern
--exclude "PATTERN"    # Exclude files matching pattern
--filter "+ PATTERN"   # Include (filter rule)
--filter "- PATTERN"   # Exclude (filter rule)
--filter-from FILE     # Load filters from file
--max-size SIZE        # Skip files larger than SIZE
--min-size SIZE        # Skip files smaller than SIZE
--max-age DURATION     # Skip files older than DURATION
--min-age DURATION     # Skip files newer than DURATION

Pattern Examples

*.jpg           # All jpg files
**/*.jpg        # All jpg files in any subdirectory
/dir/**         # Everything in /dir
{*.mp4,*.mkv}   # mp4 or mkv files

Filter Examples

# Only sync images
rclone sync src dst --include "*.{jpg,png,gif}" --exclude "*"

# Exclude node_modules and .git
rclone copy src dst --exclude "node_modules/**" --exclude ".git/**"

# Only files modified in last 7 days
rclone copy src dst --max-age 7d

# Files between 1MB and 1GB
rclone copy src dst --min-size 1M --max-size 1G

Mount & Serve

# Mount remote as local filesystem
rclone mount remote:path /mnt/cloud --daemon

# Mount with caching for better performance
rclone mount remote:path /mnt/cloud \
  --vfs-cache-mode full \
  --vfs-cache-max-size 10G

# Unmount
fusermount -u /mnt/cloud   # Linux
umount /mnt/cloud          # macOS

# Serve over HTTP
rclone serve http remote:path --addr :8080

# Serve over WebDAV
rclone serve webdav remote:path --addr :8080

# Serve over SFTP
rclone serve sftp remote:path --addr :2022

Sync Patterns

# Local → Cloud backup
rclone sync /home/user/documents remote:backup/documents

# Cloud → Local restore
rclone sync remote:backup/documents /home/user/documents

# Cloud → Cloud migration
rclone sync gdrive:data dropbox:data

# Two-way sync
rclone bisync /local remote:path --resync  # Initial sync
rclone bisync /local remote:path           # Subsequent syncs

Safety Flags

--dry-run              # Preview changes
--max-delete N         # Abort if deleting more than N files
--backup-dir DST       # Move deleted/changed files to backup location
--suffix SUFFIX        # Add suffix to backup files
--immutable            # Don't modify existing files

# Safe sync with backup
rclone sync src dst \
  --backup-dir remote:old-versions/$(date +%Y%m%d) \
  --max-delete 100

Bandwidth Control

--bwlimit RATE         # Limit bandwidth (e.g., 10M, 1G)
--bwlimit "08:00,512k 18:00,10M 23:00,off"  # Time-based limits
--tpslimit N           # Limit transactions per second

Encryption

# Create an encrypted remote (use rclone config)
# Then use it like any other remote:

rclone copy /secret encrypted-remote:
rclone mount encrypted-remote: /mnt/decrypted

Useful Combos

# Backup with progress and logging
rclone sync /data remote:backup \
  -P \
  --log-file backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).log \
  --log-level INFO

# Mirror with verification
rclone sync src dst --checksum && rclone check src dst

# Find large files
rclone ls remote: --min-size 100M

# Count files
rclone size remote:path

# Delete old backups
rclone delete remote:backup --min-age 30d --dry-run

# Deduplicate (remove duplicates)
rclone dedupe remote:path --dedupe-mode newest

# Compare two locations
rclone check local:path remote:path --combined report.txt

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