How to change permissions on a directory without meaning to... - include/exclude semantics

[Wayne Davison]

Yes, it is not immediately obvious that when rsync is transferring a
path that ends in '/' that it is really transferring the "." directory.
Thus, this command:

    rsync -av /some/path/ /another/spot/

... actually transfers "/some/path/." to "/another/spot/.", which
updates its permissions/ownership/etc.  The code even makes sure that it
is impossible to exclude this "." dir from the transfer, or else
recursion would stop.  So, I actually consider this a bad design in the
rsync protocol, but not one that I would want to attempt to change at
the moment (if ever).  You are right that this should be documented
better.

..wayne..