Weird file permission behavior

[J B Bell]

We're having a problem trying to set up rsync to sync between a couple
of sites.  This is NetBSD 1.5.1_ALPHA on the remote end (eftp) and
1.4.1 on the local end.  The rsync versions appear to be identical, as
shown in the output.

Here is the full command being used:

rsync -r -C --exclude .snapshot -e /usr/pkg/bin/ssh -vvv --delete \
eftp.redback.com:/home/ftp/customers /service/eftp/

And here is the output (I have pared it down a bit, the full output is
available if someone is masochistic enough to look at it):

local_version=24 remote_version=24
local_version=24 remote_version=24
receiving file list ... add_exclude(.snapshot)
[This all goes fine . . . ]
recv_file_list done
get_local_name count=5 /service/eftp/
[Lots of excludes get added]
make_file(-1,customers)
make_file(-1,customers/andan)
make_file(-1,customers/rbak)
make_file(-1,customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7)
send_file_list done
deleting in customers
generator starting pid=24711 count=5
recv_files(5) starting
recv_generator(customers,0)
send_file_list done
recv_generator(customers/andan,1)
[######  Here is the trouble spot  ######]
send_files starting
recv_generator(customers/rbak,2)
recv_generator(customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7,3)
failed to open customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7, continuing : Permission
denied
recv_generator(customers/rbak/boogah,4)
generate_files phase=1
send_files(3,/home/ftp/customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7)
send_files mapped /home/ftp/customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7 of size
134056
recv_files(customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7)
customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7
calling match_sums /home/ftp/customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7
sending file_sum
got file_sum
renaming customers/rbak/.OID308.netapp7.24713a to
customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7
false_alarms=0 tag_hits=0 matches=0
sender finished /home/ftp/customers/rbak/OID308.netapp7
send_files(4,/home/ftp/customers/rbak/boogah)
send_files failed to open /home/ftp/customers/rbak/boogah: Permission
denied
[######]
recv_files phase=1
generate_files phase=2
send_files phase=1
send files finished
total: matches=0  tag_hits=0  false_alarms=0 data=134056
recv_generator(customers,0)
recv_generator(customers/andan,1)
recv_generator(customers/rbak,2)
recv_files finished
wrote 61 bytes  read 135723 bytes  54313.60 bytes/sec
total size is 134056  speedup is 0.99

Now, bizarrely, the files transfer anyway.  The user rsync is running
as has some peculiarities:  on the side that rsync is executing from,
the user has one name, and on the remote, there are two names for the
same uid.  (This is to handle some ftp access restrictions.)  Manual
copying, moving, touching, and so forth by this user does work fine.

Obviously the error is essentially cosmetic, since the files do
transfer.  However, I want to wrap these commands in a program, and
send error reports if anything shows up in stderr, so this is a
problem.

Has anyone encountered anything like this before?  Is this something
glaringly obvious?  I'm stumped, and so are my co-sysadmins.  Any
clues much appreciated.

--JB