Mount Google Cloud Storage Buckets on Apple M1 via CLI

This tutorial describes how to mount a Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket on Apple M1 via command line interface (CLI) using rclone.

Get rclone

Download rclone binary for Apple's ARM architecture on the rclone download page. Choose the 64 bit ARM version for Apple M1. https://rclone.org/downloads/

Unpack and copy the binary to a typical folder, e.g.,

/usr/local/bin/

Check that you see the binary

% which rclone
/usr/local/bin/rclone

Enable rclone, e.g., by checking the version

% rclone version

Go to System Preferences and allow rclone

Configure rclone

Follow the steps on rclone homepage to configure rclone for GCS buckets. Call

% rclone config

and follow the steps on

https://rclone.org/googlecloudstorage/

Check that your configuration is working properly and you can access your bucket(s) on GCS

% rclone lsd remote:
          -1 2021-06-17 08:58:33        -1 <yourbucket1>
          -1 2021-06-17 08:58:33        -1 <yourbucket2>

Mount your GCS buckets

Create local folders as mount points

% mkdir <yourlocalbucket1>
% mkdir <yourlocalbucket2>

Use

% rclone mount --daemon remote:<yourbucket1> <yourlocalbucket1>
% rclone mount --daemon remote:<yourbucket2> <yourlocalbucket2>

to mount your buckets to your local folders. The --daemon option prevents rclone from running in the foreground.

You're all set!