local openrsync - incorrect directory ownership?

[Marko Cupać]

Hi,

I am using openrsync to backup some directory trees locally to a
separate mount point, using -a flag, which should preserve file and
directory ownership provided rsync is run as root.

I noticed directory ownerships are not as expected in backup location
(/tmp for the purpose of this demonstration), as opposed to file
ownerships, which are correct. I tested on multiple systems, 6.8 and
6.9, and I can always reproduce it as follows:

- create the following directory and file structure in user's home:

/home/user/dir1/file1.txt
/home/user/dir1/dir2/file2.txt
/home/user/dir1/dir2/dir3/file3.txt

By default, they are all owned by user (check with ls -lR):

/home/user/dir1:
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user 512 Jun 7 11:28 dir2
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 8 Jun 7 11:28 file1.txt

/home/user/dir1/dir2:
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 user user 512 Jun 7 11:34 dir3
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 10 Jun 7 11:28 file2.txt

/home/user/dir1/dir2/dir3:
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 13 Jun 7 11:34 file3.txt

- now, as root, using -a flag, sync /home/user/dir1 to /tmp/:

openrsync --rsync-path=/usr/bin/openrsync -a /home/user/dir1 /tmp/

- check (perhaps with ls -lR) file and directory ownership:

/tmp/dir1:
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 512 Jun 7 11:28 dir2
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 8 Jun 7 11:28 file1.txt

/tmp/dir1/dir2:
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 512 Jun 7 11:34 dir3
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 10 Jun 7 11:28 file2.txt

/tmp/dir1/dir2/dir3:
total 2
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 13 Jun 7 11:34 file3.txt

Notice that files are correctly owned by user:user, but directories are
owned by root:wheel, as opposed what manpage says about -a flag
(shorthand for, among others -g and -o - preserve owner and group if
run as root).

Best regards,