rclone Help

rclone help is your gateway to rclone's extensive built-in documentation. Every command, flag, backend, and feature is documented directly in the CLI — no internet connection required.

Quick Summary

Use rclone help when you need quick reference for any command. Add a command name to get specific help, or use --help on any command. For backend-specific help, use rclone help backends or rclone help backend NAME.

Basic Syntax

rclone help [COMMAND] [flags]
rclone [COMMAND] --help       # Alternative syntax
rclone help flags             # All global flags
rclone help backends          # List all supported backends
rclone help backend NAME      # Backend-specific help

Help Categories

Command Help

# General help — list all commands
rclone help

# Help for a specific command
rclone help copy
rclone help sync
rclone help mount

# Alternative: --help flag on any command
rclone copy --help
rclone sync --help

Global Flags

# List all global flags (filtering, logging, performance, etc.)
rclone help flags

Backend Help

# List all supported backends
rclone help backends

# Help for a specific backend
rclone help backend s3
rclone help backend drive
rclone help backend sftp

Practical Examples

Discover Available Commands

rclone help | grep -E "^\s+\w+" | head -30

Find a Specific Flag

# Search for bandwidth-related flags
rclone help flags | grep -i "bwlimit"

# Search for cache-related flags
rclone help flags | grep -i "cache"

Explore Backend Options

# What options does the S3 backend support?
rclone help backend s3

# What options does Google Drive support?
rclone help backend drive

Check Command Syntax Quickly

# Quick syntax reminder
rclone check --help | head -20

Additional Help Resources

Resource	How to Access
Command help	rclone help COMMAND
All flags	rclone help flags
All backends	rclone help backends
Backend details	rclone help backend NAME
Online docs	rclone.org/docs
Forum	forum.rclone.org
GitHub	github.com/rclone/rclone

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall	Consequence	Prevention
Not reading help before complex commands	Misconfigured flags, unexpected behavior	Run --help on any unfamiliar command
Ignoring backend-specific options	Missing optimizations or features	Check rclone help backend NAME for your provider
Using outdated online docs	Information doesn't match your version	Prefer --help for version-accurate docs

What's Next

Examples with Output

1. Get help for a specific command

Understand the syntax and flags for any rclone action. Command:

rclone help copy

Output:

Copy files from source to dest, skipping already copied.
Usage:
  rclone copy source:path dest:path [flags]
...

2. List all available flags

See every possible global option available in rclone. Command:

rclone help flags

Output:

Global Flags:
  --ask-password          Allow prompt for password (default true)
  --bwlimit BwLimit       Bandwidth limit in KiB/s...
...

3. View backend-specific options

Discover provider-specific tweaks for S3, Drive, etc. Command:

rclone help backend s3

Output:

Options for s3:
  --s3-access-key-id      AWS Access Key ID
  --s3-secret-access-key  AWS Secret Access Key
...

4. Use --help as a quick alternative

Get the same detailed info using the standard flag suffix. Command:

rclone sync --help

Output:

Make the destination match the source exactly...
(Followed by flags specific to sync)

5. Find help for a specific backend setting

Search through help text for deep configuration parameters. Command:

rclone help backend drive | grep "chunk_size"

Output:

  --drive-chunk-size SizeSuffix   Upload chunk size...