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kabili207/Rclone systemd service.md

Last active October 29, 2025 23:30
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Rclone systemd user service
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Rclone systemd service.md

rclone systemd service

Preparation

This service will use the same remote name you specified when using rclone config create. If you haven't done that yet, do so now.

Next, create the mountpoint for your remote. The service uses the location ~/mnt/<remote> by default.

mkdir ~/mnt/dropbox

The --allow-other option is required in order to work in many desktop environments. This flag must be enabled by adding user_allow_other to /etc/fuse.conf. If you aren't using a desktop environment, such as on a server, this option can be omitted.

Adding the service

Save the [email protected] file in ~/.config/systemd/user/ Make sure you include the @. This is required to work.

As your normal user, run:

systemctl --user daemon-reload

Using the service

You can now start/enable each remote by using rclone@<remote>

systemctl --user enable --now rclone@dropbox
Raw
[email protected]
# User service for Rclone mounting
#
# Place in ~/.config/systemd/user/
# File must include the '@' (ex [email protected])
# As your normal user, run
# systemctl --user daemon-reload
# You can now start/enable each remote by using rclone@<remote>
# systemctl --user enable --now rclone@dropbox
[Unit]
Description=rclone: Remote FUSE filesystem for cloud storage config %i
Documentation=man:rclone(1)
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/mkdir -p %h/mnt/%i
ExecStart= \
/usr/bin/rclone mount \
--config=%h/.config/rclone/rclone.conf \
--vfs-cache-mode writes \
--vfs-cache-max-size 100M \
--log-level INFO \
--log-file /tmp/rclone-%i.log \
--umask 022 \
--allow-other \
%i: %h/mnt/%i
ExecStop=/bin/fusermount -u %h/mnt/%i
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
@kabili207
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@jhub95 I can't say I've ever tested using a subdirectory, but looking at the docs for the rclone mount command, you'll probably want to edit line 28 of the service file to remove the : so you can specify it manually.

Keep in mind that if you do this you'll likely have to update anything that's not using a subdirectory so the remote ends with a : like so systemctl --user enable rclone@remote:

@rolfn
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rolfn commented Jun 22, 2025

In my experience, the -z option (lazy unmount) can be useful in some cases for safely unmounting rclone mounts; at least, its use is not harmful.

@rolfn
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rolfn commented Jun 23, 2025

Another suggestion: When using systemd, it doesn't seem appropriate to write log output directly to a file. Why not use systemd itself for this?

Instead of:

--log-level INFO \
--log-file /tmp/rclone-%i.log \

Suggestion:

--log-level INFO \
--log-systemd \

...Rolf

@kabili207
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I'm glad you caught that because I added the logging for testing initially and completely forgot about it

@SourLemonJuice
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SourLemonJuice commented Jul 20, 2025 •
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Hi, and thanks for your template. I have two things want to mention though.
The rclone mount#systemd document says:

you should provide --config and --cache-dir explicitly as absolute paths via rclone arguments...

But this template only provides the config path.
Second, the systemd specifiers are already provided XDG_CONFIG_HOME(as %E) and XDG_CACHE_HOME(as %C), so I guess I can use them directly(?)
I use this for my computer:

ExecStart=/bin/rclone mount \
    --config="%E/rclone/rclone.conf" \
    --cache-dir="%C/rclone" \
    --vfs-cache-mode=writes \
    "%i:" "%h/mnt/%i"

By the way, I'm on archlinux with kde plasma, and I don't know why, but I didn't need the --allow-other. Just saying.

@SourLemonJuice
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@rolfn

In my experience, the -z option (lazy unmount) can be useful in some cases for safely unmounting rclone mounts; at least, its use is not harmful.

I didn't even know about "lazy unmount" this concept in the past. This should solve the problem caused by incomplete data transfer during unmounting. I've already lost some test data before.

Suggestion:

--log-level INFO \
--log-systemd \

They didn't document this flag on the website, almost missed it.

@maxpowernz
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Here I had to give a few more commands to get it to run smoothly.

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/

vim ~/.config/systemd/user/[email protected]
# PASTE SERVICE FILE AND SAVE

loginctl enable-linger $USER
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u)
systemctl --user daemon-reload
# rclone's remote called gd in ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
systemctl --user enable --now [email protected]

# show the files
ls -lah ~/mnt/gd

Thank you sir.

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