rclone/docs/content/alias.md

---
title: "Alias"
description: "Remote Aliases"
date: "2018-01-30"
---

<i class="fa fa-link"></i> Alias
-----------------------------------------

The `alias` remote provides a new name for another remote.

Paths may be as deep as required or a local path, 
eg `remote:directory/subdirectory` or `/directory/subdirectory`.

During the initial setup with `rclone config` you will specify the target
remote. The target remote can either be a local path or another remote.

Subfolders can be used in target remote. Asume a alias remote named `backup`
with the target `mydrive:private/backup`. Invoking `rclone mkdir backup:desktop`
is exactly the same as invoking `rclone mkdir mydrive:private/backup/desktop`.

There will be no special handling of paths containing `..` segments.
Invoking `rclone mkdir backup:../desktop` is exactly the same as invoking
`rclone mkdir mydrive:private/backup/../desktop`.
The empty path is not allowed as a remote. To alias the current directory
use `.` instead.

Here is an example of how to make a alias called `remote` for local folder.
First run:

     rclone config

This will guide you through an interactive setup process:

```
No remotes found - make a new one
n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q> n
name> remote
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Alias for a existing remote
   \ "alias"
 2 / Amazon Drive
   \ "amazon cloud drive"
 3 / Amazon S3 (also Dreamhost, Ceph, Minio)
   \ "s3"
 4 / Backblaze B2
   \ "b2"
 5 / Box
   \ "box"
 6 / Cache a remote
   \ "cache"
 7 / Dropbox
   \ "dropbox"
 8 / Encrypt/Decrypt a remote
   \ "crypt"
 9 / FTP Connection
   \ "ftp"
10 / Google Cloud Storage (this is not Google Drive)
   \ "google cloud storage"
11 / Google Drive
   \ "drive"
12 / Hubic
   \ "hubic"
13 / Local Disk
   \ "local"
14 / Microsoft Azure Blob Storage
   \ "azureblob"
15 / Microsoft OneDrive
   \ "onedrive"
16 / Openstack Swift (Rackspace Cloud Files, Memset Memstore, OVH)
   \ "swift"
17 / Pcloud
   \ "pcloud"
18 / QingCloud Object Storage
   \ "qingstor"
19 / SSH/SFTP Connection
   \ "sftp"
20 / Webdav
   \ "webdav"
21 / Yandex Disk
   \ "yandex"
22 / http Connection
   \ "http"
Storage> 1
Remote or path to alias.
Can be "myremote:path/to/dir", "myremote:bucket", "myremote:" or "/local/path".
remote> /mnt/storage/backup
Remote config
--------------------
[remote]
remote = /mnt/storage/backup
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y
Current remotes:

Name                 Type
====                 ====
remote               alias

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
```

Once configured you can then use `rclone` like this,

List directories in top level in `/mnt/storage/backup`

    rclone lsd remote:

List all the files in `/mnt/storage/backup`

    rclone ls remote:

Copy another local directory to the alias directory called source

    rclone copy /home/source remote:source