rclone

rclone is a general-purpose file transfer and sync CLI for cloud storage, network protocols, and local filesystems. It covers one-off copies, ongoing sync, integrity checks, virtual remotes like encryption, and exposing remote data as mounts or network services.

• Copy, sync, move, and verify files between local paths and cloud or protocol-backed remotes without writing provider-specific scripts.
• List remote objects in JSON, inspect usage or config state, and compare source and destination trees before making changes.
• Mount remotes as local filesystems or serve them over HTTP, WebDAV, FTP, SFTP, or DLNA when a direct file API is not enough.

• Commands like copy, sync, check, lsjson, config dump, and config providers work cleanly in shell automation, with dry-run protection and stable flags.
• Machine-readable output exists for specific surfaces, especially lsjson, config JSON commands, and the RC API, but not every transfer command emits structured JSON.
• It fits inspect/change/verify loops well for backup, migration, and cross-cloud workflows; setup is the main friction because many remotes need credentials or OAuth.

• Remote setup can involve interactive config flows, browser-based OAuth, or backend-specific credentials before unattended use is practical.
• Long-running mount or serve workflows behave more like managed services than one-shot commands and need extra care around permissions, caching, and lifecycle.