Docker-volume-plugin with rootless about rclone

[chiefrocker86]

I’ll give it a try, but I’ve never used go, so don’t put too much hopes in my attempts ;-).

I’m currently busy but when I got a minute I’ll give it a shot.

[ncw]

Do you want to make a patch for this? We don't currently have maintainer for the docker plugin.

[jonasgeiler]

I have recently set up the rclone docker volume plugin for docker in rootless-mode using a custom systemd service (basically the systemd setup as described in the docs, but with adjusted paths) instead of the docker plugin install command. Works without problems so far.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Create ~/.config/systemd/user/docker-volume-rclone.service:

   [Unit]
   Description=Docker Volume Plugin for rclone (Rootless)
   Before=docker.service
   After=network.target docker-volume-rclone.socket
   Requires=docker-volume-rclone.socket docker.service
   
   [Service]
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone serve docker \
     --base-dir $HOME/.local/share/docker-volumes/rclone \
     --socket-addr $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker/plugins/rclone.sock
   ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p $HOME/.local/share/docker-volumes/rclone
   ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p $HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins/rclone/config
   ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p $HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins/rclone/cache
   Environment=RCLONE_CONFIG=$HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins/rclone/config/rclone.conf
   Environment=RCLONE_CACHE_DIR=$HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins/rclone/cache
   Environment=RCLONE_VERBOSE=1
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=default.target
   

2. Create ~/.config/systemd/user/docker-volume-rclone.socket:

   [Unit]
   Description=Docker Volume Plugin for rclone (Rootless)
   
   [Socket]
   ListenStream=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker/plugins/rclone.sock
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=sockets.target
   

3. Reload system units with systemctl --user daemon-reload
4. Start the rclone volume plugin with systemctl --user start docker-volume-rclone.socket && systemctl --user start docker-volume-rclone.service

Important

You should replace the environment variables ($HOME, $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, etc.) with their respective values in the systemd file. It don't think systemd will replace them itself.
So pretty much replace $HOME with /home/<username> and $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR with /run/user/<uid>

Let me know if you have problems setting this up and I'll try to help!

[srfsh]

I have recently set up the rclone docker volume plugin for docker in rootless-mode using a custom systemd service (basically the systemd setup as described in the docs, but with adjusted paths) instead of the docker plugin install command. Works without problems so far.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Create ~/.config/systemd/user/docker-volume-rclone.service:

   [Unit]
   Description=Docker Volume Plugin for rclone (Rootless)
   Before=docker.service
   After=network.target docker-volume-rclone.socket
   Requires=docker-volume-rclone.socket docker.service
   
   [Service]
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone serve docker \
     --base-dir $HOME/.local/share/docker-volumes/rclone \
     --socket-addr $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker/plugins/rclone.sock
   ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p $HOME/.local/share/docker-volumes/rclone
   ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p $HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins/rclone/config
   ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/mkdir -p $HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins/rclone/cache
   Environment=RCLONE_CONFIG=$HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins/rclone/config/rclone.conf
   Environment=RCLONE_CACHE_DIR=$HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins/rclone/cache
   Environment=RCLONE_VERBOSE=1
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=default.target
   

2. Create ~/.config/systemd/user/docker-volume-rclone.socket:

   [Unit]
   Description=Docker Volume Plugin for rclone (Rootless)
   
   [Socket]
   ListenStream=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/docker/plugins/rclone.sock
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=sockets.target
   

3. Reload system units with systemctl --user daemon-reload
4. Start the rclone volume plugin with systemctl --user start docker-volume-rclone.socket && systemctl --user start docker-volume-rclone.service

Important

You should replace the environment variables ($HOME, $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, etc.) with their respective values in the systemd file. It don't think systemd will replace them itself. So pretty much replace $HOME with /home/<username> and $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR with /run/user/<uid>

Let me know if you have problems setting this up and I'll try to help!

Hi,

I may have appeared out of the blue, but I would really like some helping hand. I am not using a systemd-based distro (alpine), but as far as I could understand, this does not really involve anything related to systemd. Could you describe exactly how you utilize this setup with examples using a mount from rclone?

Thanks a lot!

[jonasgeiler]

@srfsh wrote:
I may have appeared out of the blue, but I would really like some helping hand. I am not using a systemd-based distro (alpine), but as far as I could understand, this does not really involve anything related to systemd. Could you describe exactly how you utilize this setup with examples using a mount from rclone?

I'm not sure I can help in this case since I've never used anything other than systemd. Does your distro use some other service manager? You basically need a service which runs the rclone serve docker command in the background and handles the socket file and other prerequisites like env vars, folders, and startup order.

[srfsh]

@srfsh wrote:
I may have appeared out of the blue, but I would really like some helping hand. I am not using a systemd-based distro (alpine), but as far as I could understand, this does not really involve anything related to systemd. Could you describe exactly how you utilize this setup with examples using a mount from rclone?

I'm not sure I can help in this case since I've never used anything other than systemd. Does your distro use some other service manager? You basically need a service which runs the rclone serve docker command in the background and handles the socket file and other prerequisites like env vars, folders, and startup order.

I thought maybe you had some other hidden (as in forgotten) commands that you used to bind things together.

But I have good news. You don't need to bother with this at all. Here is what you have to do:

1. Define where you'll put your rclone config and the cache directories. $HOME/.local/share/docker-plugins seems to be a nice place in terms of mimicking /var/lib/docker and /var/lib/docker-plugins. The config directory must have a single file called rclone.conf. I am not sure about the very purpose of the cache directory. Seems to hold a single file with a dummy content. Maybe if I tweak with vfs, it would be populated. Yet to experiment.
2. Create the directories. I choose the $HOME/.local/share/docker/rclone since I didn't want to have an extra docker-plugins directory, which I won't be using either way, laying around. For instance: mkdir -p .local/share/docker/rclone/config .local/share/docker/rclone/cache.
3. Place your rclone.conf file under the config directory you've just created.
4. Make sure your rootless dockerd is running. Uninstall the rclone plugin if you had installed it previously. Then install it again with: docker plugin install --alias rclone --disable --grant-all-permissions rclone/docker-volume-rclone:amd64. With this, we are essentially not enabling it just for the time being, to let us configure it.
5. Set your desired config and cache directories. This step is the essential part where it makes it possible to use the plugin with rootless dockerd: docker plugin set rclone "config=$HOME/.local/share/docker/rclone/config/" "cache=$HOME/.local/share/docker/rclone/cache/". Again, the paths could be tweaked as your heart desires. The most important one is the config, which holds our rclone.conf file.
6. Enable the plugin and enjoy your free time: docker plugin enable rclone.
7. (Optional) Create a volume using the aliased driver name rclone: docker volume create mygdrive -d rclone -o remote=gdrive:.
8. (Optional) Enjoy it even more using Alpine: docker run --rm -it -v mygdrive:/hellofromgdrive alpine ls /hellofromgdrive

I hope that helps. I have only tested it on Alpine v3.20.3 (the latest as of writing).