With the git source, the -X flag no-longer works. I suspect this problem was introduced fixing bug #5526. For a simple test case try: sudo mkdir /var2 sudo rsync -aX --link-dest=/var /var/. /var2/. ls -laZ /var2 You should see that /var2 does not have the correct xattributes.
Opps. Look like I hit submit twice. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 5538 ***