I am not subscribed to this list. I anticipated that with this set of options rsync --recursive --links --hard-links --perms --owner --group \ --devices --times --sparse --one-file-system --rsh=/usr/bin/ssh \ --delete --delete-excluded --delete-after --max-delete=80 --relative \ --stats --numeric-ids that rsync would not only preserve hard links but also exploit them in not sending files which are hard links from existing files. Logically, I don't see any difference in complexity in spotting existing hard links before the copy. If hard links are not possible at the target (not so in my case) then a file copy at the destination beats transferring source to dest over a network. Anyway, despite my expectations I see a transfer of a Debian netinst ISO is apparently being transferred despite being a hard link of an existing file.