POSTS / Mount Alist on Windows 11 with Rclone

AList is a file list/WebDAV program that supports multiple storages.

Here’s an example chirmyram, which is a repo for sharing resources drived by alist.

Install Rclone and WinFsp

With help of Scoop, we can easily install most tools without burden of setting PATH.

$ scoop search rclone
Results from local buckets...

Name           Version Source Binaries
----           ------- ------ --------
rclone         1.68.2  main
rclone-browser 1.8.0   extras

$ scoop search winfsp
Results from other known buckets...
(add them using 'scoop bucket add <bucket name>')

Name      Source
----      ------
winfsp-np nonportable

Setup Remote in Rclone

$ rclone config
No remotes found, make a new one?
n) New remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/s/q> n

Enter name for new remote.
name> chirmyram

Option Storage.
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value.
...
54 / Uptobox
    (uptobox)
55 / WebDAV
    (webdav)
56 / Yandex Disk
    (yandex)
57 / Zoho
    (zoho)
...
Storage> 55

Option url.
URL of http host to connect to.
E.g. https://example.com.
Enter a value.
url> https://al.chirmyram.com/dav/
...
6 / rclone WebDAV server to serve a remote over HTTP via the WebDAV protocol
    (rclone)
 7 / Other site/service or software
    (other)
vendor> 7

Option user.
User name.
In case NTLM authentication is used, the username should be in the format 'DomainUser'.
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
user> alist

Option pass.
Password.
Choose an alternative below. Press Enter for the default (n).
y) Yes, type in my own password
g) Generate random password
n) No, leave this optional password blank (default)
y/g/n> y
Enter the password:
password:
Confirm the password:
password:

Option bearer_token.
Bearer token instead of user/pass (e.g. a Macaroon).
Enter a value. Press Enter to leave empty.
bearer_token>

Edit advanced config?
y) Yes
n) No (default)
y/n>

Configuration complete.
Options:
- type: webdav
- url: https://al.chirmyram.com/dav/
- vendor: other
- user: alist
- pass: *** ENCRYPTED ***
Keep this "chirmyram" remote?
y) Yes this is OK (default)
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d>

Current remotes:

Name                 Type
====                 ====
chirmyram            webdav

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

Mount Remote WebDAV to Windows 11

rclone mount chirmyram:/ Z: --cache-dir <Path to Cache Dir> --vfs-cache-mode writes

Note that the rclone mount command actually starts a process that never stops, which stalls current terminal. We want it to run more quietly and be able to start automatically.

Make it a Startup Task

As directly run rclone will start a process running the mount service, we could use Start-Process to make it not stall current shell.

Start-Process -NoNewWindow   -FilePath "$env:USERPROFILEscoopshims\rclone.EXE"   -ArgumentList "mount chirmyram:/ Z: --cache-dir `"$env:USERPROFILEDocumentsAListCache`" --vfs-cache-mode writes"

Write that script into a PS1 file then use schtasks to create a scheduled task.

sudo schtasks /create   /tn "RcloneMount"   /tr "powershell -WindowStyle Hidden -File %USERPROFILE%DocumentsScripts\rclone_mount.ps1"   /sc onlogon

To test the task, use Win+R then run taskschd.msc. Find the task just added and test it with right click option. (Unfortunately, the task still start a terminal window and will be killed if window is closed.)

So we turn to nssm for a more comfortable experience.

$ scoop search nssm
Results from local buckets...

Name Version  Source Binaries
---- -------  ------ --------
nssm 2.24-103 main

Then run nssm GUI to add the script as a service.

$ sudo nssm install RcloneMount

Fill the form like this:

Path: <Absolute Path to Rclone>
Startup directory:
Arguments: mount chirmyram:/ Z: --cache-dir <Absolute Path to Cache> --vfs-cache-mode writes

Click Install service to finish install that service then start it.

$ sudo nssm start RcloneMount

Finally we find a way without creating a script to run rclone mount. ✌