rclone.txt

https://rclone.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rclone

# rclone is like rsync on steroids and was originally created for files in cloud storage such as S3, Dropbox etc.
# Besides syncing files it can encrypt, compress and locally cache them, and mount remote sources in the local
# filesystem, decrypting etc on the fly as needed.

# Instead of passing bunches of arguments you define \e[38;5;201mremotes\e[0m, usually using the interactive \e[38;5;208mrclone config\e[0m.
# A remote is a name, type, location, credentials, and whatever type-specific options/flags are available. In sync
# and copy etc commands you use the remote \e[1mname\e[0m as source or destination, followed by a colon ':' to distinguish it
# from a local file/directory.
# All configuration is stored in a config file, get the path with \e[38;5;208mrclone config file\e[0m.
# It will usually be in \e[38;5;226m~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf\e[0m
# For a local source or destination you don't usually have to create a config entry, unless you want rclone to encrypt
# it, then a sample configuration will look like (externcrypted is the name of the remote, here):

[externcrypted]
type = crypt
remote = /media/usbshare/backup/
directory_name_encryption = false
password = **longassobfuscatedpassword**
password2 = **longassobfuscatedpassword**

# you can backup to this directory using
$ rclone sync some/local/path externcrypted:
# switching the arguments obviously syncs the other way.
# it is always the contents of the given directories that are sync'd or copied.

# \e[1;33;41mNB: \e[0m when the timestamps are not the same, rclone doesn't check the size or checksum, but copies the file
#      regardless. On different filesystems the timestamps can differ by nano-seconds straight after a sync, some
#      difference in stored precision or loss in encrypted-to-write, I don't know - but this WILL cause a second
#      sync to copy all files again, even if the source wasn't touched. \e[38;5;208m--modify-window=1s\e[0m adds a 1 second margin
#      and helps enormously here.
# Use \e[38;5;208m-v\e[0m or \e[38;5;208m-vv\e[0m to check for this. You can also use \e[38;5;208mtouch -d '<iso timestamp>' $file\e[0m and \e[38;5;208mstat $file\e[0m to test the
#   precision of a FS, just add like 12 numbers after the decimal dot of the seconds in touch.
# Also, use stat for iso format examples.

# you can \e[1mmount\e[0m it: (the & is to run it in the background as it stays open)
$ rclone mount externcrypted: /existing/mount/directory &

# You can unmount it with umount again:
$ sudo umount /mount/directory

# If you have the keys (in the config) to mount an encrypted directory, but that directory sits on a disk that
#   rclone can't access for whatever reasons (like Windows), you can simply copy the files you need to somewhere
#   rclone *can* access, and modify the config or re-create the directories leading to the original mountpoint and
#   move the files there, it'll magically work.

# \e[38;5;208m--filter-from somefile.txt\e[0m can be used to only include and exclude certain files/directories.
# Some incomplete notes:
Lines with stuff to include start with a '+', to exclude start with '-'
Comments are #
Directories should probably have /** at the end?
If you use the filqe at all, a line with '- *' might prevent wiping the target directory's .ssh, .bashrc etc. This
shouldn't happen with a proper setup but YOU KNOW.

### TROUBLESHOOTING ###
-v or -vv for verbose/debug info. It might turn out it keeps copying files because the timestamps on two different
  filesystems are stored differently.