When you rsync a directory, say `$rsync mydir/ ...` with the trailing slash, the destination directory is changed to the ownership, permissions and timestamp of `mydir`.
Consider this simple example $ mkdir test $ cd test $ mkdir a b $ touch -d '01 jan 1980' a/A $ touch -d '15 jun 1985' a $ touch -d '02 feb 1990' b/B $ touch -d '25 aug 1995' b $ mkdir c Note the directory 'c' timestamp: $ ls -ld c drwxr-xr-x 2 john users 4096 Jan 7 20:50 c Now, rsync: $ rsync -a a/ b/ c $ ls -ld c drwxr-xr-x 2 john users 4096 Jun 15 1985 c The directory 'c' now has the timestamp of the file 'a' Furthermore, if the copy is done with root, the ownership and permissions of the file are also propagated to the directory. Note the destination directory gains the properties of the first source directory with a trailing slash. I am using: rsync version 3.1.2 protocol version 31 Linux 4.8.13-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 9 07:24:34 CET 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux Am I using it correctly, or is this a bug or is it expected behaviour ? -- Please use reply-all for most replies to avoid omitting the mailing list. To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html