The manpage states: You may turn off one or more implied options by prefixing the option name with "no-". Not all options may be prefixed with a "no-": only options that are implied by other options (e.g. --no-D, --no-perms) or have different defaults in various circumstances (e.g. --no-whole-file, --no-blocking-io, --no-dirs). You may specify either the short or the long option name after the "no-" prefix (e.g. --no-R is the same as --no-relative).
The distinction which options are implied or not isn't that clear... In the case of the -a string of options it's not a problem, but I can't see how --relative could be an implied option; however, it's given as an example of the usage of --no-. I looked into this because I wanted to "comment out" the usage of --checksum quickly in a script, and thought that sticking -no- before the word "checksum" would work; however: rsync: --no-checksum: unknown option So apparently not all options can cope with the --no- thing. Perhaps this should be made clear in the manpage? (Or is it an error?) Paul Slootman -- To unsubscribe or change options: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/rsync Before posting, read: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html