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  • @TAFKA'goldilocks' -a implies -p which preserves all permissions including executability. What you can add is -HAX, which will preserve hard links, access control lists and extended attributes respectively. Commented Apr 6, 2014 at 15:23
  • @TAFKA'goldilocks' - graeme's correct, the man page says the -a includes --perms which would cover the execute bit. That's kind of what I thought, but had to check. Commented Apr 6, 2014 at 15:27
  • Yeah you're right, did a quick test. Dunno why I've been using -aE all this time. But hey, look: macinstruct.com/node/85 In fact a search for rsync tutorial "-aE" reveals this misinformation all over the place. Commented Apr 6, 2014 at 15:33
  • The -H one is can actually be a good idea on a root filesystem. I recently discovered that the bzip2, bunzip and bzcat binaries are all hard linked on my system - using -H would preserve things like this. Commented Apr 6, 2014 at 15:35
  • @TAFKA'goldilocks' - I use a much more elaborate rsync when copying data b/w EXT4 via NTFS mount SMB shares. Perhaps the -aE is a limitation of going to HFS+? Commented Apr 6, 2014 at 15:38