Try to make rsync's behavior w/o "--perms" a little clearer.

diff --git a/rsync.yo b/rsync.yo
index 08b7c93..abcac12 100644 (file)
--- a/rsync.yo
+++ b/rsync.yo
@@ -631,9 +631,10 @@ default.
 dit(bf(-p, --perms)) This option causes rsync to set the destination
 permissions to be the same as the source permissions.
 
-Without this option, each new file gets its permissions set based on the
-source file's permissions and the umask at the receiving end, while all
-other files (including updated files) retain their existing permissions
+Without this option, all existing files (including updated files) retain
+their existing permissions, while each new file gets its permissions set
+based on the source file's permissions, but masked by the receiving end's
+umask setting
 (which is the same behavior as other file-copy utilities, such as cp).
 
 dit(bf(-o, --owner)) This option causes rsync to set the owner of the