-dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) When combined with the bf(--relative) option, the
-implied directories in each path are not explicitly duplicated as part
-of the transfer. This makes the transfer more optimal and also allows
-the two sides to have non-matching symlinks in the implied part of the
-path. For instance, if you transfer the file "/path/foo/file" with bf(-R),
-the default is for rsync to ensure that "/path" and "/path/foo" on the
-destination exactly match the directories/symlinks of the source. Using
-the bf(--no-implied-dirs) option would omit both of these implied dirs,
-which means that if "/path" was a real directory on one machine and a
-symlink of the other machine, rsync would not try to change this.
+dit(bf(--no-implied-dirs)) This option affects the default behavior of the
+bf(--relative) option. When it is specified, the attributes of the implied
+directories from the source names are not included in the transfer. This
+means that the corresponding path elements on the destination system are
+left unchanged if they exist, and any missing implied directories are
+created with default attributes. This even allows these implied path
+elements to have big differences, such as being a symlink to a directory on
+one side of the transfer, and a real directory on the other side.
+
+For instance, if a command-line arg or a files-from entry told rsync to
+transfer the file "path/foo/file", the directories "path" and "path/foo"
+are implied when bf(--relative) is used. If "path/foo" is a symlink to
+"bar" on the destination system, the receiving rsync would ordinarily
+delete "path/foo", recreate it as a directory, and receive the file into
+the new directory. With bf(--no-implied-dirs), the receiving rsync updates
+"path/foo/file" using the existing path elements, which means that the file
+ends up being created in "path/bar". Another way to accomplish this link
+preservation is to use the bf(--keep-dirlinks) option (which will also
+affect symlinks to directories in the rest of the transfer).
+
+In a similar but opposite scenario, if the transfer of "path/foo/file" is
+requested and "path/foo" is a symlink on the sending side, running without
+bf(--no-implied-dirs) would cause rsync to transform "path/foo" on the
+receiving side into an identical symlink, and then attempt to transfer
+"path/foo/file", which might fail if the duplicated symlink did not point
+to a directory on the receiving side. Another way to avoid this sending of
+a symlink as an implied directory is to use bf(--copy-unsafe-links), or
+bf(--copy-dirlinks) (both of which also affect symlinks in the rest of the
+transfer -- see their descriptions for full details).