rsync and symlinks

[Tyler Smith <tyler.smith@mail.mcgill.ca>]

Hi,

While backing up my data to an external hard drive, I get a strange
error:

tyler:tylers_laptop-> rsync -a ~/analysis/ ./thesis19Apr07/analysis/
rsync: symlink
"/mnt/jumpdrive/tylers_laptop/thesis19Apr07/analysis/
aflp/.#.AFLPScripts-preOct06.R"
-> "tyler@blackbart.mynetwork.12779:1174748709" failed: Operation not
permitted (1)
rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at
main.c(977) [sender=2.6.9]

The file in question is not a symlink, or anything special:

tyler:tylers_laptop-> cd ~/analysis/aflp/
tyler:aflp-> ls -l
total 3704
*output snipped*
-rw-r--r-- 1 tyler tyler  12682 2007-04-01 00:02 #.AFLPScripts-preOct06.R#
*output snipped*

The hashes suggest that it was an emacs autosave, I don't recall
exactly. It opens fine and appears to contain uncorrupted data. The
rsync-ed backup is identical to the original, according to diff. Why
is rsync complaining?

Thanks,

Tyle