If a directory in the target is 555 but has an ACL that allows it to be modified by the current user (e.g. under AFS ACLs it is owned by the current user and thus always has an implicit "a" ACL), rsync will still throw a "failed to modify permissions on" for it. It would be nice if rsync could take ACLs into account during that step. -- Aaron Davies aaron.davies at gmail.com