Manage and sync files across 70+ cloud storage platforms

A command-line reference and usage guide for rclone, a cloud storage manager supporting over 70 providers with cloud equivalents of core unix commands - rsync, cp, mv, mount, ls, ncdu, tree, rm, and cat - that preserves timestamps, verifies checksums, and can restart interrupted transfers. It leads with eight safety warnings given how destructively rclone can act on cloud data: always run --dry-run first on sync/move/delete/purge; use --interactive/-i while learning to get per-operation confirmation; never put credentials on the command line in plain text, storing them via rclone config or environment variables instead; protect ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf with chmod 600 since it holds sensitive data; remember rclone purge ignores all filters and deletes everything under a path; remember rclone sync makes the destination identical to source, deleting anything at dest not present in source; keep the remote-control API (--rc) bound to localhost, since exposing it without --rc-htpasswd auth lets anyone control the instance; and use --vfs-cache-mode full on mounts for safer writes during interruption. Core commands cover listing, copying (non-destructive), syncing (destination made identical to source - deletes extras), moving (copy then delete source), deleting, integrity checking, and directory operations. Filtering supports include/exclude patterns, size-based, and age-based rules, with an explicit warning never to mix --include, --exclude, and --filter flags together - use --filter exclusively once rules get combined. Global flags are grouped into verbosity, safety, transfer control, performance, and config categories. It covers mounting cloud storage as a local filesystem (basic and cached), unmounting, serving via rclone's built-in servers, and configuring an encrypted "crypt" remote that wraps an existing remote so files are transparently encrypted/decrypted, checked for integrity with rclone cryptcheck. Sixteen detailed reference files cover usage, flags, filtering, the remote-control API, bidirectional sync, encryption, caching, chunking for large files on limited remotes, the union and combine backends for merging remotes, checksum hashing, provider comparison, installation, Docker, and FAQ - converted from rclone's official Hugo-based docs, with any leftover Hugo shortcode syntax flagged as a conversion bug to replace before relying on it. Provider-specific reference files exist for S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, SFTP, WebDAV, OpenStack Swift, FTP, and 60+ more, plus per-command reference files for 80+ individual rclone commands. Seven common workflows are documented end to end: initial setup and connection verification, backing up local files to cloud (dry-run reviewed before the real sync), cloud-to-cloud migration with parallel transfers, restoring from cloud, bandwidth-limited transfers, encrypted backups through a crypt remote, and scheduled cron-based backups.

rclone sync --dry-run -P /home/user/documents remote:backup/documents
# Review dry-run output carefully, then:
rclone sync -P /home/user/documents remote:backup/documents

Use it whenever a task involves terminal-based cloud file operations - upload, download, sync, copy, move, mount, or remote management - across S3-compatible or other supported cloud storage.

Input is a source and destination path (local or a configured remote), plus the operation (copy, sync, move, mount, serve) and any filters or safety flags. Output is transferred, synced, or mounted files, verified by checksum, with a dry-run preview available before any destructive operation.

Supports 70+ cloud storage backends including S3-compatible object stores, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, SFTP, and WebDAV, plus cross-provider virtual backends (crypt, cache, chunker, union, combine, hasher) and a remote-control HTTP API for programmatic use.

Developers and sysadmins managing files across cloud storage providers from the command line who need safe, checksum-verified sync/copy/move/mount operations and want the destructive-operation guardrails (dry-run, interactive confirmation) front and center rather than discovered the hard way.