v1.02

Google Cloud Storage

Paths are specified as remote:bucket (or remote: for the lsd command.) You may put subdirectories in too, e.g. remote:bucket/path/to/dir.

Configuration

The initial setup for google cloud storage involves getting a token from Google Cloud Storage which you need to do in your browser. rclone config walks you through it.

Here is an example of how to make a remote called remote. First run:

 rclone config

This will guide you through an interactive setup process:

n) New remote
d) Delete remote
q) Quit config
e/n/d/q> n
name> remote
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
[snip]
XX / Google Cloud Storage (this is not Google Drive)
   \ "google cloud storage"
[snip]
Storage> google cloud storage
Google Application Client Id - leave blank normally.
client_id>
Google Application Client Secret - leave blank normally.
client_secret>
Project number optional - needed only for list/create/delete buckets - see your developer console.
project_number> 12345678
Service Account Credentials JSON file path - needed only if you want use SA instead of interactive login.
service_account_file>
Access Control List for new objects.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Object owner gets OWNER access, and all Authenticated Users get READER access.
   \ "authenticatedRead"
 2 / Object owner gets OWNER access, and project team owners get OWNER access.
   \ "bucketOwnerFullControl"
 3 / Object owner gets OWNER access, and project team owners get READER access.
   \ "bucketOwnerRead"
 4 / Object owner gets OWNER access [default if left blank].
   \ "private"
 5 / Object owner gets OWNER access, and project team members get access according to their roles.
   \ "projectPrivate"
 6 / Object owner gets OWNER access, and all Users get READER access.
   \ "publicRead"
object_acl> 4
Access Control List for new buckets.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Project team owners get OWNER access, and all Authenticated Users get READER access.
   \ "authenticatedRead"
 2 / Project team owners get OWNER access [default if left blank].
   \ "private"
 3 / Project team members get access according to their roles.
   \ "projectPrivate"
 4 / Project team owners get OWNER access, and all Users get READER access.
   \ "publicRead"
 5 / Project team owners get OWNER access, and all Users get WRITER access.
   \ "publicReadWrite"
bucket_acl> 2
Location for the newly created buckets.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Empty for default location (US).
   \ ""
 2 / Multi-regional location for Asia.
   \ "asia"
 3 / Multi-regional location for Europe.
   \ "eu"
 4 / Multi-regional location for United States.
   \ "us"
 5 / Taiwan.
   \ "asia-east1"
 6 / Tokyo.
   \ "asia-northeast1"
 7 / Singapore.
   \ "asia-southeast1"
 8 / Sydney.
   \ "australia-southeast1"
 9 / Belgium.
   \ "europe-west1"
10 / London.
   \ "europe-west2"
11 / Iowa.
   \ "us-central1"
12 / South Carolina.
   \ "us-east1"
13 / Northern Virginia.
   \ "us-east4"
14 / Oregon.
   \ "us-west1"
location> 12
The storage class to use when storing objects in Google Cloud Storage.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Default
   \ ""
 2 / Multi-regional storage class
   \ "MULTI_REGIONAL"
 3 / Regional storage class
   \ "REGIONAL"
 4 / Nearline storage class
   \ "NEARLINE"
 5 / Coldline storage class
   \ "COLDLINE"
 6 / Durable reduced availability storage class
   \ "DURABLE_REDUCED_AVAILABILITY"
storage_class> 5
Remote config
Use web browser to automatically authenticate rclone with remote?
 * Say Y if the machine running rclone has a web browser you can use
 * Say N if running rclone on a (remote) machine without web browser access
If not sure try Y. If Y failed, try N.
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> y
If your browser doesn't open automatically go to the following link: http://127.0.0.1:53682/auth
Log in and authorize rclone for access
Waiting for code...
Got code
Configuration complete.
Options:
- type: google cloud storage
- client_id:
- client_secret:
- token: {"AccessToken":"xxxx.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx","RefreshToken":"x/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxx","Expiry":"2014-07-17T20:49:14.929208288+01:00","Extra":null}
- project_number: 12345678
- object_acl: private
- bucket_acl: private
Keep this "remote" remote?
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

See the remote setup docs for how to set it up on a machine with no Internet browser available.

Note that rclone runs a webserver on your local machine to collect the token as returned from Google if using web browser to automatically authenticate. This only runs from the moment it opens your browser to the moment you get back the verification code. This is on http://127.0.0.1:53682/ and this it may require you to unblock it temporarily if you are running a host firewall, or use manual mode.

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

See all the buckets in your project

rclone lsd remote:

Make 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 --interactive /home/local/directory remote:bucket

Service Account support

You can set up rclone with Google Cloud Storage in an unattended mode, i.e. not tied to a specific end-user Google account. This is useful when you want to synchronise files onto machines that don't have actively logged-in users, for example build machines.

To get credentials for Google Cloud Platform IAM Service Accounts, please head to the Service Account section of the Google Developer Console. Service Accounts behave just like normal User permissions in Google Cloud Storage ACLs, so you can limit their access (e.g. make them read only). After creating an account, a JSON file containing the Service Account's credentials will be downloaded onto your machines. These credentials are what rclone will use for authentication.

To use a Service Account instead of OAuth2 token flow, enter the path to your Service Account credentials at the service_account_file prompt and rclone won't use the browser based authentication flow. If you'd rather stuff the contents of the credentials file into the rclone config file, you can set service_account_credentials with the actual contents of the file instead, or set the equivalent environment variable.

Anonymous Access

For downloads of objects that permit public access you can configure rclone to use anonymous access by setting anonymous to true. With unauthorized access you can't write or create files but only read or list those buckets and objects that have public read access.

Application Default Credentials

If no other source of credentials is provided, rclone will fall back to Application Default Credentials this is useful both when you already have configured authentication for your developer account, or in production when running on a google compute host. Note that if running in docker, you may need to run additional commands on your google compute machine - see this page.

Note that in the case application default credentials are used, there is no need to explicitly configure a project number.

--fast-list

This remote supports --fast-list which allows you to use fewer transactions in exchange for more memory. See the rclone docs for more details.

Custom upload headers

You can set custom upload headers with the --header-upload flag. Google Cloud Storage supports the headers as described in the working with metadata documentation

  • Cache-Control
  • Content-Disposition
  • Content-Encoding
  • Content-Language
  • Content-Type
  • X-Goog-Storage-Class
  • X-Goog-Meta-

Eg --header-upload "Content-Type text/potato"

Note that the last of these is for setting custom metadata in the form --header-upload "x-goog-meta-key: value"

Modification times

Google Cloud Storage stores md5sum natively. Google's gsutil tool stores modification time with one-second precision as goog-reserved-file-mtime in file metadata.

To ensure compatibility with gsutil, rclone stores modification time in 2 separate metadata entries. mtime uses RFC3339 format with one-nanosecond precision. goog-reserved-file-mtime uses Unix timestamp format with one-second precision. To get modification time from object metadata, rclone reads the metadata in the following order: mtime, goog-reserved-file-mtime, object updated time.

Note that rclone's default modify window is 1ns. Files uploaded by gsutil only contain timestamps with one-second precision. If you use rclone to sync files previously uploaded by gsutil, rclone will attempt to update modification time for all these files. To avoid these possibly unnecessary updates, use --modify-window 1s.

Restricted filename characters

Character Value Replacement
NUL 0x00 ␀
LF 0x0A ␊
CR 0x0D ␍
/ 0x2F ／

Invalid UTF-8 bytes will also be replaced, as they can't be used in JSON strings.

Standard options

Here are the Standard options specific to google cloud storage (Google Cloud Storage (this is not Google Drive)).

--gcs-client-id

OAuth Client Id.

Leave blank normally.

Properties:

  • Config: client_id
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_CLIENT_ID
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-client-secret

OAuth Client Secret.

Leave blank normally.

Properties:

  • Config: client_secret
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_CLIENT_SECRET
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-project-number

Project number.

Optional - needed only for list/create/delete buckets - see your developer console.

Properties:

  • Config: project_number
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_PROJECT_NUMBER
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-user-project

User project.

Optional - needed only for requester pays.

Properties:

  • Config: user_project
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_USER_PROJECT
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-service-account-file

Service Account Credentials JSON file path.

Leave blank normally. Needed only if you want use SA instead of interactive login.

Leading ~ will be expanded in the file name as will environment variables such as ${RCLONE_CONFIG_DIR}.

Properties:

  • Config: service_account_file
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-service-account-credentials

Service Account Credentials JSON blob.

Leave blank normally. Needed only if you want use SA instead of interactive login.

Properties:

  • Config: service_account_credentials
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CREDENTIALS
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-anonymous

Access public buckets and objects without credentials.

Set to 'true' if you just want to download files and don't configure credentials.

Properties:

  • Config: anonymous
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_ANONYMOUS
  • Type: bool
  • Default: false

--gcs-object-acl

Access Control List for new objects.

Properties:

  • Config: object_acl
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_OBJECT_ACL
  • Type: string
  • Required: false
  • Examples:
    • "authenticatedRead"
      • Object owner gets OWNER access.
      • All Authenticated Users get READER access.
    • "bucketOwnerFullControl"
      • Object owner gets OWNER access.
      • Project team owners get OWNER access.
    • "bucketOwnerRead"
      • Object owner gets OWNER access.
      • Project team owners get READER access.
    • "private"
      • Object owner gets OWNER access.
      • Default if left blank.
    • "projectPrivate"
      • Object owner gets OWNER access.
      • Project team members get access according to their roles.
    • "publicRead"
      • Object owner gets OWNER access.
      • All Users get READER access.

--gcs-bucket-acl

Access Control List for new buckets.

Properties:

  • Config: bucket_acl
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_BUCKET_ACL
  • Type: string
  • Required: false
  • Examples:
    • "authenticatedRead"
      • Project team owners get OWNER access.
      • All Authenticated Users get READER access.
    • "private"
      • Project team owners get OWNER access.
      • Default if left blank.
    • "projectPrivate"
      • Project team members get access according to their roles.
    • "publicRead"
      • Project team owners get OWNER access.
      • All Users get READER access.
    • "publicReadWrite"
      • Project team owners get OWNER access.
      • All Users get WRITER access.

--gcs-bucket-policy-only

Access checks should use bucket-level IAM policies.

If you want to upload objects to a bucket with Bucket Policy Only set then you will need to set this.

When it is set, rclone:

  • ignores ACLs set on buckets
  • ignores ACLs set on objects
  • creates buckets with Bucket Policy Only set

Docs: https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/bucket-policy-only

Properties:

  • Config: bucket_policy_only
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_BUCKET_POLICY_ONLY
  • Type: bool
  • Default: false

--gcs-location

Location for the newly created buckets.

Properties:

  • Config: location
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_LOCATION
  • Type: string
  • Required: false
  • Examples:
    • ""
      • Empty for default location (US)
    • "asia"
      • Multi-regional location for Asia
    • "eu"
      • Multi-regional location for Europe
    • "us"
      • Multi-regional location for United States
    • "asia-east1"
      • Taiwan
    • "asia-east2"
      • Hong Kong
    • "asia-northeast1"
      • Tokyo
    • "asia-northeast2"
      • Osaka
    • "asia-northeast3"
      • Seoul
    • "asia-south1"
      • Mumbai
    • "asia-south2"
      • Delhi
    • "asia-southeast1"
      • Singapore
    • "asia-southeast2"
      • Jakarta
    • "australia-southeast1"
      • Sydney
    • "australia-southeast2"
      • Melbourne
    • "europe-north1"
      • Finland
    • "europe-west1"
      • Belgium
    • "europe-west2"
      • London
    • "europe-west3"
      • Frankfurt
    • "europe-west4"
      • Netherlands
    • "europe-west6"
      • Zürich
    • "europe-central2"
      • Warsaw
    • "us-central1"
      • Iowa
    • "us-east1"
      • South Carolina
    • "us-east4"
      • Northern Virginia
    • "us-west1"
      • Oregon
    • "us-west2"
      • California
    • "us-west3"
      • Salt Lake City
    • "us-west4"
      • Las Vegas
    • "northamerica-northeast1"
      • Montréal
    • "northamerica-northeast2"
      • Toronto
    • "southamerica-east1"
      • São Paulo
    • "southamerica-west1"
      • Santiago
    • "asia1"
      • Dual region: asia-northeast1 and asia-northeast2.
    • "eur4"
      • Dual region: europe-north1 and europe-west4.
    • "nam4"
      • Dual region: us-central1 and us-east1.

--gcs-storage-class

The storage class to use when storing objects in Google Cloud Storage.

Properties:

  • Config: storage_class
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_STORAGE_CLASS
  • Type: string
  • Required: false
  • Examples:
    • ""
      • Default
    • "MULTI_REGIONAL"
      • Multi-regional storage class
    • "REGIONAL"
      • Regional storage class
    • "NEARLINE"
      • Nearline storage class
    • "COLDLINE"
      • Coldline storage class
    • "ARCHIVE"
      • Archive storage class
    • "DURABLE_REDUCED_AVAILABILITY"
      • Durable reduced availability storage class

--gcs-env-auth

Get GCP IAM credentials from runtime (environment variables or instance meta data if no env vars).

Only applies if service_account_file and service_account_credentials is blank.

Properties:

  • Config: env_auth
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_ENV_AUTH
  • Type: bool
  • Default: false
  • Examples:
    • "false"
      • Enter credentials in the next step.
    • "true"
      • Get GCP IAM credentials from the environment (env vars or IAM).

Advanced options

Here are the Advanced options specific to google cloud storage (Google Cloud Storage (this is not Google Drive)).

--gcs-token

OAuth Access Token as a JSON blob.

Properties:

  • Config: token
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_TOKEN
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-auth-url

Auth server URL.

Leave blank to use the provider defaults.

Properties:

  • Config: auth_url
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_AUTH_URL
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-token-url

Token server url.

Leave blank to use the provider defaults.

Properties:

  • Config: token_url
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_TOKEN_URL
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-directory-markers

Upload an empty object with a trailing slash when a new directory is created

Empty folders are unsupported for bucket based remotes, this option creates an empty object ending with "/", to persist the folder.

Properties:

  • Config: directory_markers
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_DIRECTORY_MARKERS
  • Type: bool
  • Default: false

--gcs-no-check-bucket

If set, don't attempt to check the bucket exists or create it.

This can be useful when trying to minimise the number of transactions rclone does if you know the bucket exists already.

Properties:

  • Config: no_check_bucket
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_NO_CHECK_BUCKET
  • Type: bool
  • Default: false

--gcs-decompress

If set this will decompress gzip encoded objects.

It is possible to upload objects to GCS with "Content-Encoding: gzip" set. Normally rclone will download these files as compressed objects.

If this flag is set then rclone will decompress these files with "Content-Encoding: gzip" as they are received. This means that rclone can't check the size and hash but the file contents will be decompressed.

Properties:

  • Config: decompress
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_DECOMPRESS
  • Type: bool
  • Default: false

--gcs-endpoint

Endpoint for the service.

Leave blank normally.

Properties:

  • Config: endpoint
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_ENDPOINT
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

--gcs-encoding

The encoding for the backend.

See the encoding section in the overview for more info.

Properties:

  • Config: encoding
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_ENCODING
  • Type: Encoding
  • Default: Slash,CrLf,InvalidUtf8,Dot

--gcs-description

Description of the remote.

Properties:

  • Config: description
  • Env Var: RCLONE_GCS_DESCRIPTION
  • Type: string
  • Required: false

Limitations

rclone about is not supported by the Google Cloud Storage backend. Backends without this capability cannot determine free space for an rclone mount or use policy mfs (most free space) as a member of an rclone union remote.

See List of backends that do not support rclone about and rclone about

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