Rclone on DARWIN

This document describes how to manually configure (set up) Rclone using University of Delaware email account for Google Drive on DARWIN.

First, use VALET to load Rclone into your environment; you must load the latest version 1.69.2 as the old versions will not work on DARWIN.

[traine@login00.darwin ~]$ vpkg_versions rclone
Available versions in package (* = default version):
 
[/opt/shared/valet/2.1/etc/rclone.vpkg_yaml]
rclone    a command line program to manage files on cloud storage
  1.54.1  official release 1.54.1
* 1.69.2  official release 1.69.2
[traine@login00.darwin ~]$ vpkg_require rclone/1.69.2
Adding package `rclone/1.69.2` to your environment

Create a new Rclone remote configuration by typing rclone config. In this example, we are going to call this new configuration darwinGoogleDrive. You don't have to use this name, you can call your configuration whatever you would like.

[traine@login00.darwin ~]$ rclone config

No remotes found - make a new one
n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q> n
name> darwinGoogleDrive

Next, find the "Google Drive" option from the given list of cloud services. Once it is located, enter its value, 20 or drive. Keep in mind that these options can change, so please make sure that you read and choose the right option.

Type of storage to configure.
Enter a string value. Press Enter for the default ("").
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Fichier
   \ "fichier"
 2 / Alias for an existing remote
   \ "alias"
 3 / Amazon Drive
   \ "amazon cloud drive"

... Skipping lines...
   
20 / Google Drive
   \ (drive)
21 / Google Photos
   \ (google photos)
22 / HTTP
   \ (http)
23 / Hadoop distributed file system
   \ (hdfs)
24 / HiDrive
   \ (hidrive)
   
... Skipping more lines ...

59 / iCloud Drive
   \ (iclouddrive)
60 / premiumize.me
   \ (premiumizeme)
61 / seafile
   \ (seafile)
Storage> drive

The next couple of steps will ask about adding a client_id and a client_secret. For this example, we select the default option ("") by pressing Enter for each.

** See help for drive backend at: https://rclone.org/drive/ **

Option client_id.
Google Application Client Id
Setting your own is recommended.
See https://rclone.org/drive/#making-your-own-client-id for how to create your own.
If you leave this blank, it will use an internal key which is low performance.
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
client_id>
Option client_secret.
OAuth Client Secret.
Leave blank normally.
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
client_secret>

The next step will give you options to grant Rclone permission to access your files and directories in your Google Drive. We are going to use the default value of full access by typing 1 or drive, but you can read the different options and choose the best option for you.

Option scope.
Comma separated list of scopes that rclone should use when requesting access from drive.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value.
Press Enter to leave empty.
 1 / Full access all files, excluding Application Data Folder.
   \ (drive)
 2 / Read-only access to file metadata and file contents.
   \ (drive.readonly)
   / Access to files created by rclone only.
 3 | These are visible in the drive website.
   | File authorization is revoked when the user deauthorizes the app.
   \ (drive.file)
   / Allows read and write access to the Application Data folder.
 4 | This is not visible in the drive website.
   \ (drive.appfolder)
   / Allows read-only access to file metadata but
 5 | does not allow any access to read or download file content.
   \ (drive.metadata.readonly)
scope> 1

For the next steps, we select the default option ("") by pressing Enter for each.

Option 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}`.
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
service_account_file>

For the next question about advance config it is generally not required or needed, so type n to select 'No' option.

Edit advanced config? (y/n)
y) Yes
n) No (default)
y/n> n

So far we have been answering the configuration questions mostly with the default options. However, the next question is where we will differ from the typical setup process due to firewall permissions restricting auto config to work correctly, so type n to select the option working on a remote or headless machine. This option will allow you to safely work around the firewall permission issue by requesting a verification code from your local machine (rather than DARWIN), then you can manually copy and paste the verification code to DARWIN.

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 (default)
n) No
y/n> n

After typing n and pressing Enter, the following text will display. The next step is to Download the rclone release v1.69.2 on your local computer and run rclone authorize.

Option config_token.
For this to work, you will need rclone available on a machine that has a web browser available.
For more help and alternate methods see: https://rclone.org/remote_setup/
Execute the following on the machine with the web browser (same rclone
version recommended):
        rclone authorize "drive" "base64_json_blob"
Then paste the result.
Enter a value.
config_token>

For Linux OS, open a new terminal and run the following command on your local computer:

curl -O https://downloads.rclone.org/v1.69.2/rclone-v1.69.2-linux-amd64.zip
unzip rclone-v1.69.2-linux-amd64.zip
cd rclone-v1.69.2-linux-amd64
./rclone authorize "drive" "base64_json_blob"

For macOS, open a new terminal and run the following command. Download the Rclone for ARM if your machine is equipped with ARM chips. You may also need to allow running rclone in the security settings.

cd && curl -O https://downloads.rclone.org/v1.69.2/rclone-v1.69.2-osx-amd64.zip
unzip -a rclone-v1.69.2-osx-amd64.zip && cd rclone-v1.69.2-osx-amd64
./rclone authorize "drive" "base64_json_blob"

For Windows, first download Rclone v1.69.2 for Windows, then extract all files. Open Windows PowerShell, and then change to the folder where you put the rclone.exe, run the following command:

.\rclone.exe authorize "drive" "base64_json_blob"

After running the command, you will be given a URL that will allow you to sign into your university Google email account and request a verification code for Rclone to use. Copy this URL and paste it into a web browser on your local computer. Sign in and afterwards you will be given your verification code. Copy and paste this verification code into the DARWIN shell session. It will look something like this below:

025/05/14 15:01:53 NOTICE: Config file "/home/traine/.config/rclone/rclone.conf" not found - using defaults
2025/05/14 15:01:53 NOTICE: Make sure your Redirect URL is set to "http://127.0.0.1:53682/" in your custom config.
2025/05/14 15:01:53 NOTICE: If your browser doesn't open automatically go to the following link: http://127.0.0.1:53682/auth?state=xxxxxxxxxxxx
2025/05/14 15:01:53 NOTICE: Log in and authorize rclone for access
2025/05/14 15:01:53 NOTICE: Waiting for code...
2025/05/14 15:02:19 NOTICE: Got code
Paste the following into your remote machine --->
YOUR UNIQUE CODE HERE
<---End paste

After you paste the verification code, the last step will ask you if you want to configure this as a "Shared Drive (Team Drive)". For this example, we will type n and press Enter to select the No (default) option.

Configure this as a Shared Drive (Team Drive)?
y) Yes
n) No (default)
y/n> n

Now you can review your configuration and make edits if needed. If everything is okay type y to keep the drive remote and press Enter.

Configuration complete.
Options:
- type: drive
- scope: drive
- token: {"access_token":"**The rest of this is private and unique information for each user.**"}
- team_drive:
Keep this "darwinGoogleDrive" remote?
y) Yes this is OK (default)
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

Once everything is configured correctly, Rclone will show you a list of your remote configurations, and give you options to modify, create a new one, or simply exit the Rclone configuration. At this point, assuming all steps were followed as described, we will simple Quit Config with the q option, and press Enter.

Current remotes:

Name                 Type
====                 ====
darwinGoogleDrive    drive

e) Edit existing remote
n) New remote
d) Delete remote
r) Rename remote
c) Copy remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
e/n/d/r/c/s/q> q

To make sure the new remote configuration is working correctly, we will use the Rclone lsd command to list out the root level directories of the remote configuration, darwinGoogleDrive, for our University of Delaware Google Drive on DARWIN.

[traine@login00.darwin ~]$ rclone lsd darwinGoogleDrive:
          -1 2020-11-16 15:43:38        -1 Introduction to Unix Shell on Caviness GDoc
          -1 2020-05-05 16:46:11        -1 wifi-map

For additional information on Rclone and more options, please visit Rclone.