The Command Line Client

Introduction

The ownCloud Client packages contain a command line client, owncloudcmd, that can be used to synchronize ownCloud files to client machines.

owncloudcmd performs a single sync run and then exits the synchronization process. In this manner, owncloudcmd processes the differences between client and server directories and propagates the files to bring both repositories to the same state. Contrary to the GUI-based client, owncloudcmd does not repeat synchronizations on its own. It also does not monitor for file system changes.

To invoke owncloudcmd, you must provide the local and the remote repository URL using the following command:

owncloudcmd [OPTIONS...] sourcedir owncloudurl.

sourcedir is the local directory and owncloudurl is the server URL. Other command line switches supported by owncloudcmd include the following:

Switch Description

--user, -u [user]

Use user as the login name.

--password, -p [password]

Use password as the password.

-n

Use netrc (5) for login.

--non-interactive

Do not prompt for questions.

--silent, -s

Inhibits verbose log output.

--trust

Trust any SSL certificate, including invalid ones.

--httpproxy http://[user@pass:]<server>:<port>

Uses server as HTTP proxy.

--davpath [path]

Overrides the WebDAV Path with path

--exclude [file]

Exclude list file.

--unsyncedfolders [file]

File containing the list of un-synced remote folders (selective sync)

--max-sync-retries [n]

Retries maximum n times (defaults to 3)

-h

Sync hidden files,do not ignore them.

Credential Handling

owncloudcmd requires the user to specify the username and password using the standard URL pattern, for example:

$ owncloudcmd /home/user/my_sync_folder https://carla:secret@server/owncloud/remote.php/webdav/

To synchronize the ownCloud directory Music to the local directory media/music, through a proxy listening on port 8080, and on a gateway machine using IP address 192.168.178.1, the command line would be:

$ owncloudcmd --httpproxy http://192.168.178.1:8080 \
              $HOME/media/music \
              https://server/owncloud/remote.php/webdav/Music.

owncloudcmd will prompt for the username and password, unless they have been specified on the command line or -n has been passed.

Exclude List

owncloudcmd requires access to an exclude list file. It must either be installed along with owncloudcmd and thus be available in a system location, be placed next to the binary as sync-exclude.lst or be explicitly specified with the --exclude switch.