Installing and Configuring rclone as a User via SSH on Ubuntu
This tutorial explains how to install and configure rclone on Ubuntu using SSH without root access. The installation will be done inside your user account.
1. Connect to your server via SSH
ssh username@server-ip
2. Go to your home directory
cd ~
3. Download the latest rclone version
wget https://downloads.rclone.org/rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip
If wget is not available, you can use:
curl -O https://downloads.rclone.org/rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip
4. Extract the archive
unzip rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip
5. Create a local bin directory
mkdir -p ~/bin
6. Install rclone in your user account
cp rclone-v*-linux-amd64/rclone ~/bin/ chmod +x ~/bin/rclone
7. Add rclone to your PATH
For Bash users:
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc
For Zsh users:
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc source ~/.zshrc
8. Verify the installation
which rclone rclone version
If everything is correct, you should see the rclone binary path and version information.
9. Start rclone configuration
rclone config
Select:
n
Enter a name for your remote, for example:
myremote
Then choose the storage provider you want to configure, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, S3 or another supported provider.
10. Authentication
If rclone asks:
Use auto config?
On a remote SSH server, usually select:
n
rclone will provide a URL. Open it in your browser, authorize access and paste the generated code back into the SSH session.
11. Check configured remotes
rclone listremotes
12. List files from the remote
rclone lsd myremote: rclone ls myremote:
13. Upload files
rclone copy ~/Downloads myremote:Backup -P
14. Download files
rclone copy myremote:Backup ~/Downloads -P
15. Synchronize directories
rclone sync ~/data myremote:backup/server -P
Warning: The sync command deletes files from the destination if they no longer exist in the source directory. Use it carefully.
16. Useful options
-P Show progress --transfers 4 Number of simultaneous file transfers --checkers 4 Number of checking threads --bwlimit 50M Limit bandwidth usage --dry-run Test command without making changes --log-file ~/rclone.log Save logs to a file -v Verbose output -vv Debug output
17. Example backup command
rclone sync ~/data myremote:backup/server \
-P \
--transfers 4 \
--checkers 4 \
--log-file ~/rclone.log
18. rclone configuration file location
rclone config file
Usually the configuration file is stored in:
~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
19. Updating rclone
cd ~ wget https://downloads.rclone.org/rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip unzip -o rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip cp rclone-v*-linux-amd64/rclone ~/bin/ chmod +x ~/bin/rclone rclone version
20. Removing rclone
rm -f ~/bin/rclone rm -rf ~/.config/rclone rm -f ~/rclone-current-linux-amd64.zip rm -rf ~/rclone-v*-linux-amd64
Conclusion
rclone is now installed and configured inside your user account. You can use it to copy, sync or back up files between your server and supported remote storage providers without requiring root access.
