Rclone mount - Mounting SFTP, WebDAV, S3 network storages as a local directory in Linux

In this article, we will look at the process of mounting remote network storage SFTP, WebDAV, and S3 as a regular directory in the Linux file system.

We will do this using the cool rclone utility👩‍🚀👩‍🚀.

Briefly about SFTP, WebDAV, S3, and rclone

SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is a network protocol designed for secure file transfer over a network. SFTP operates over the SSH (Secure Shell) protocol.

WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol that allows managing files stored on remote web servers. Essentially, it turns a web server into something similar to a network drive.

S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service) is a cloud object storage provided by AWS, as well as many other providers (S3-compatible storage, for example, MinIO).

rclone is a powerful Open source command-line utility for synchronizing files and directories with/to many different cloud storage services, including SFTP, WebDAV, S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, and many others. rclone can also mount cloud storage as local file systems (via the FUSE subsystem), which is what this article is about 😉.

Why not SFTP/SSHFS and DAVFS?

Yes, SFTP can be connected directly or even using the FUSE variant - SSHFS. A similar situation exists for WebDAV: DAVFS is available. But the peculiarity of mounting with rclone lies in its unification and additional capabilities.

For example, both sshfs and rclone mount use SFTP as a backend. The difference is that rclone doesn’t just proxy the request; it is also capable of:

• caching files;
• buffering;
• reading in chunks;
• re-opening connections.

Parameters can be flexibly adjusted for various operating conditions.

How to read this article?

The sections of the article for each mounting type are self-contained. You can choose any one, and by performing the rclone installation + all steps of the desired section, you will get a working configuration.

Now, let’s move on to practice👨‍💻.

rclone installation

The rclone utility is available in standard repositories. Open the terminal and execute:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install fuse rclone

Initially, rclone is designed for direct file exchange between different storages: move|copy|sync. But this article will only focus on the mount command, which allows mounting different types of storage as a regular directory.

Mounting SFTP as a directory

First, you need to add the SFTP remote storage access credentials to the rclone config (you can specify multiple instances of different types in the config):

mkdir -vp ~/.config/rclone

vim ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

Fill it with:

[sftp-storage-1]
type = sftp
host = sftp.r4ven.me
user = ivan
port = 22
#pass = ObfuscatedSecretPassword
key_file = /home/ivan/.ssh/id_ed25519
md5sum_command = md5sum
sha1sum_command = sha1sum

rclone obscure 'SecretPassword'

Parameter description:

• [sftp-storage-1] - arbitrary name for your remote storage;
• type = sftp - tells rclone that this is a configuration for SFTP storage;
• host = sftp.r4ven.me - IP address or domain name of the SFTP server;
• user = ivan - username for login;
• port = 22 - SFTP port (default 22);
• #pass = ObfuscatedSecretPassword - (commented out) obfuscated SSH user password - I do not recommend storing it here, it’s better to use an SSH key for authentication, but if absolutely necessary, obfuscate it with the command: rclone obscure 'SecretPassword';
• key_file = /home/ivan/.ssh/id_ed25519 = SSH key, you can create it with the command ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f /home/ivan/.ssh/id_ed25519;
• md5sum_command = md5sum and sha1sum_command = sha1sum - commands for checking file integrity on the remote server;

rclone config

Manual SFTP mounting

First, let’s create a local directory where we will mount the remote one:

mkdir -vp ~/Storage/sftp

Now, to manually mount the remote directory to the local one, execute the following command:

rclone mount --daemon sftp-storage-1:/home/ivan/data ~/Storage/sftp

Where:

• mount - mount command;
• --daemon - runs the rclone process in the background;
• sftp-storage-1:/home/ivan/data - remote source (SFTP storage sftp-storage-1, path /home/ivan/data);
• ~/Storage/sftp - local mount point.

Check mounting:

findmnt --real

df -h ~/Storage/sftp

ls -l ~/Storage/sftp

To unmount the directory, execute the fusermount command with the -u (unmount) flag:

fusermount -u ~/Storage/sftp

It seems like nothing special, but the whole point of such mounting lies in additional parameters, which can be many. For example:

rclone mount --daemon sftp-storage-1:/home/ivan/data ~/Storage/sftp \
    --dir-cache-time 48h \
    --vfs-cache-mode full \
    --vfs-cache-max-size 10G \
    --vfs-cache-max-age 24h \
    --vfs-write-back 5s \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size 128M \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 1G \
    --buffer-size 128M \
    --transfers 8 \
    --checkers 8 \
    --umask 002 \
    --log-level INFO \
    --retries 10 \
    --low-level-retries 10 \
    --sftp-set-modtime=false \
    --sftp-disable-hashcheck

See the rclone parameter description under the spoiler.

To check write speed, you can use the dd utility:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=./Storage/sftp/bigfile.bin bs=100M count=10

Below in the screenshot is an example of writing with standard mounting and with additional parameters:

📝 Note

It is worth noting separately the case when the uid/gid of your local and remote user differ, and writing to the mounted directory will be impossible. In this scenario, enabling the user_allow_other parameter in your FUSE system and using the --allow-other key in rclone might help.

BASH

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sudo vim /etc/fuse.conf

Click to expand and view more

BASH

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rclone mount --daemon --allow-other sftp-storage-1:/home/ivan/data ~/Storage/sftp

Click to expand and view more

Automatic SFTP mounting

To automatically start the mounting process, we will use the Systemd initialization system.

Create a unit file with the command:

mkdir -vp ~/.config/systemd/user

vim  ~/.config/systemd/user/sftp-storage-1.service

Fill it with:

[Unit]
Description=Rclone SFTP mount
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple

ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/sleep 5

ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone mount \
    sftp-storage-1:/home/ivan/data /home/ivan/Storage/sftp \
    --dir-cache-time 48h \
    --vfs-cache-mode full \
    --vfs-cache-max-size 10G \
    --vfs-cache-max-age 24h \
    --vfs-write-back 5s \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size 128M \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 1G \
    --buffer-size 128M \
    --transfers 8 \
    --checkers 8 \
    --umask 002 \
    --log-level INFO \
    --retries 10 \
    --low-level-retries 10 \
    --sftp-set-modtime=false \
    --sftp-disable-hashcheck

ExecStop=/usr/bin/fusermount -u -z /home/ivan/Storage/sftp
ExecStopPost=/usr/bin/sleep 2
TimeoutStopSec=20

Restart=always
RestartSec=60

KillMode=mixed

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

The unit parameter description is under the spoiler.

Reload Systemd configuration:

systemctl --user daemon-reload

fusermount -u ~/Storage/sftp

Now activate the unit start/autostart:

systemctl --user enable --now sftp-storage-1.service

systemctl --user status sftp-storage-1.service

If everything is OK:

Check the mount point:

findmnt --real

df -h ~/Storage/sftp

ls -l ~/Storage/sftp

To view the service journal:

journalctl --user -u sftp-storage-1.service

Now the service will start when the user logs into the system.

Mounting WebDAV as a directory

Here, you also need to add the WebDAV remote storage access credentials to the rclone config (you can specify multiple instances of different types in the config):

mkdir -vp ~/.config/rclone

vim ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

Fill it with:

[webdav-storage-1]
type = webdav
url = https://webdav.r4ven.me/
vendor = auto
user = ivan@r4ven.me
pass = ObfuscatedSecretPassword

rclone obscure 'SecretPassword'

Parameter description:

• [webdav-storage-1] - arbitrary name for the remote resource;
• type = webdav - tells rclone that this is a configuration for WebDAV storage;
• url = https://webdav.r4ven.me/ - the full URL of your WebDAV server. This can be the root URL or the path to a specific folder you want to mount;
• vendor = auto - allows rclone to automatically determine the type of WebDAV server (e.g., Nextcloud, Owncloud, SharePoint). You can explicitly specify the type if known;
• user = ivan@r4ven.me - username used for authentication;
• pass = ObfuscatedSecretPassword - obfuscated password.

rclone config

Manual WebDAV mounting

First, let’s create a local directory where we will mount the remote one:

mkdir -vp ~/Storage/webdav

Now, to manually mount the remote directory to the local one, execute the following command:

rclone mount --daemon webdav-storage-1:/data ~/Storage/webdav

Where:

• mount - mount command;
• --daemon - runs the rclone process in the background;
• webdav-storage-1:/data - remote source (WebDAV directory);
• ~/Storage/webdav - local mount point.

Check mounting:

findmnt --real

df -h ~/Storage/webdav

ls -l ~/Storage/webdav

To unmount the directory, execute the fusermount command with the -u (unmount) flag:

fusermount -u ~/Storage/webdav

Here, too, many rclone parameters can be used. Example:

rclone mount --daemon webdav-storage-1:/data ~/Storage/webdav \
    --dir-cache-time 48h \
    --vfs-cache-mode full \
    --vfs-cache-max-size 10G \
    --vfs-cache-max-age 24h \
    --vfs-write-back 5s \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size 128M \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 1G \
    --buffer-size 128M \
    --transfers 8 \
    --checkers 8 \
    --umask 002 \
    --log-level INFO \
    --retries 10 \
    --low-level-retries 10

See the rclone parameter description under the spoiler.

To check write speed, you can use the dd utility:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=./Storage/webdav/bigfile.bin bs=10M count=10

Below in the screenshot is an example of writing with standard mounting and with additional parameters:

Automatic WebDAV mounting

For automatic startup of the mounting process, we also use Systemd.

Create a unit file with the command:

mkdir -vp ~/.config/systemd/user

vim  ~/.config/systemd/user/webdav-storage-1.service

Fill it with:

[Unit]
Description=Rclone WebDAV mount
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple

ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/sleep 5

ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone mount \
    webdav-storage-1:/data /home/ivan/Storage/webdav \
    --dir-cache-time 48h \
    --vfs-cache-mode full \
    --vfs-cache-max-size 10G \
    --vfs-cache-max-age 24h \
    --vfs-write-back 5s \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size 128M \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 1G \
    --buffer-size 128M \
    --transfers 8 \
    --checkers 8 \
    --umask 002 \
    --log-level INFO \
    --retries 10 \
    --low-level-retries 10

ExecStop=/usr/bin/fusermount -u -z /home/ivan/Storage/webdav
ExecStopPost=/usr/bin/sleep 2
TimeoutStopSec=20

Restart=always
RestartSec=60

KillMode=mixed

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

The unit parameter description is under the spoiler.

Reload Systemd configuration:

systemctl --user daemon-reload

fusermount -u ~/Storage/webdav

Now activate the unit start/autostart:

systemctl --user enable --now webdav-storage-1.service

systemctl --user status webdav-storage-1.service

If everything is OK:

Check the mount point:

findmnt --real

df -h ~/Storage/webdav

ls -l ~/Storage/webdav

To view the service journal:

journalctl --user -u webdav-storage-1.service

Now the service will start when the user logs into the system.

Mounting S3 as a directory

Again, we start with the rclone config. Open the file and add the credentials for the S3 instance (you can specify multiple instances of different types in the config):

mkdir -vp ~/.config/rclone

vim ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

Fill it with:

[s3-storage-1]
type = s3
provider = Minio
endpoint: https://s3.r4ven.me:443
access_key_id: ivan
secret_access_key: SecretAccessKey
bucket: data

Parameter description:

• [s3-storage-1] - arbitrary name for the remote resource;
• type = s3 - tells rclone that this is a configuration for S3 storage;
• provider = Minio - name of the S3 provider;
• endpoint: https://s3.r4ven.me:443 - URL of your S3 instance;
• access_key_id: ivan - Access key for the bucket;
• secret_access_key: SecretAccessKey - Secret key for accessing the bucket;
• bucket: data - respectively, the name of the existing bucket.

rclone config

Manual S3 mounting

Create a local directory where we will mount the remote one:

mkdir -vp ~/Storage/s3

The mount command is identical to the previous ones:

rclone mount --daemon s3-storage-1:/data ~/Storage/s3

Where:

• mount - mount command;
• --daemon - runs the rclone process in the background;
• s3-storage-1:/data - remote source (S3 instance);
• ~/Storage/s3 - local mount point.

Check mounting:

findmnt --real

df -h ~/Storage/s3

ls -l ~/Storage/s3

To unmount the directory, execute the fusermount command with the -u (unmount) flag:

fusermount -u ~/Storage/s3

Many rclone parameters are also available here. Example:

rclone mount --daemon s3-storage-1:/data ~/Storage/s3 \
    --dir-cache-time 48h \
    --vfs-cache-mode full \
    --vfs-cache-max-size 10G \
    --vfs-cache-max-age 24h \
    --vfs-write-back 5s \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size 128M \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 1G \
    --buffer-size 128M \
    --transfers 8 \
    --checkers 8 \
    --umask 002 \
    --log-level INFO \
    --retries 10 \
    --low-level-retries 10 \
    --poll-interval 10m \
    --s3-chunk-size 64M \
    --s3-upload-cutoff 64M

See the rclone parameter description under the spoiler.

To check write speed, you can use the dd utility:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=./Storage/s3/bigfile.bin bs=10M count=10

Below in the screenshot is an example of writing with standard mounting and with additional parameters:

Automatic S3 mounting

To automatically start the mounting process, we will again use Systemd.

Create a unit file:

mkdir -vp ~/.config/systemd/user

vim  ~/.config/systemd/user/s3-storage-1.service

Fill it with:

[Unit]
Description=Rclone S3 mount
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple

ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/sleep 5

ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone mount \
    s3-storage-1:/data /home/ivan/Storage/s3 \
    --dir-cache-time 48h \
    --vfs-cache-mode full \
    --vfs-cache-max-size 10G \
    --vfs-cache-max-age 24h \
    --vfs-write-back 5s \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size 128M \
    --vfs-read-chunk-size-limit 1G \
    --buffer-size 128M \
    --transfers 8 \
    --checkers 8 \
    --umask 002 \
    --log-level INFO \
    --retries 10 \
    --low-level-retries 10 \
    --poll-interval 10m \
    --s3-chunk-size 64M \
    --s3-upload-cutoff 64M

ExecStop=/usr/bin/fusermount -u -z /home/ivan/Storage/s3
ExecStopPost=/usr/bin/sleep 2
TimeoutStopSec=20

Restart=always
RestartSec=60

KillMode=mixed

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

The unit parameter description is under the spoiler.

Reload Systemd configuration:

systemctl --user daemon-reload

fusermount -u ~/Storage/s3

Now activate the unit start/autostart:

systemctl --user enable --now s3-storage-1.service

systemctl --user status s3-storage-1.service

If everything is OK:

Check the mount point:

findmnt --real

df -h ~/Storage/s3

ls -l ~/Storage/s3

To view the service journal:

journalctl --user -u s3-storage-1.service

Now the service will start when the user logs into the system.

Afterword

This is how you can conveniently mount and use remote storage as a local directory📁. And simultaneously!

I discovered rclone relatively recently and was pleasantly surprised by its functionality. I will continue to study this useful tool🔧.

That’s all for today. Thank you for reading my blog📝. Good luck!

Materials used

• Official rclone website
• rclone main options
• Specific parameters for mount mode
• rclone repository on GitHub
• About the FUSE kernel module
• About SFTP protocol
• About WebDAV protocol
• About S3 protocol
• SSH — Secure connection to remote hosts: introduction

👨‍💻Ну и…

Don’t forget about our Telegram channel 📱 and chat 💬 All the best ✌️

That should be it. If not, check the logs 🙂