Problem with rsync --link-dest

Suddenly, rsync is not making sense - have used it for years w/o this problem. I installed the newest rsync just to make sure some bug had croppen in.

In this example, it is saying the link-dest does not exist, yet it does exist. I underlined the error message.

I'm sure it is a simple problem, but I can't spot it after too much time for me to spend on it. Here is a log of the session: I have an alias ll = ls -lF used here.

[219root@MacMini-13:44 ~]#mkdir rsync_trial

[220root@MacMini-13:44 ~]#mkdir rsync_trial/aa

[221root@MacMini-13:44 ~]#mkdir rsync_trial/bb

[222root@MacMini-13:44 ~]#touch rsync_trial/aa/test1

[223root@MacMini-13:44 ~]#rsync -a rsync_trial/aa rsync_trial/bb/back1

[224root@MacMini-13:45 ~]#touch rsync_trial/aa/test2

[225root@MacMini-13:45 ~]#rsync -a rsync_trial/aa --link-dest=rsync_trial/bb/back1 rsync_trial/bb/back2

--link-dest arg does not exist: rsync_trial/bb/back1

[226root@MacMini-13:46 ~]#rsync -a rsync_trial/aa --link-dest=./rsync_trial/bb/back1 rsync_trial/bb/back2

--link-dest arg does not exist: ./rsync_trial/bb/back1

[227root@MacMini-13:47 ~]#ll ./rsync_trial/bb/back1

total 0

drwxr-xr-x 3 root staff 102 Nov 5 13:44 aa/

[228root@MacMini-13:47 ~]#which rsync

/opt/local/bin/rsync

[229root@MacMini-13:48 ~]#rsync --version

rsync version 3.0.9 protocol version 30

Copyright (C) 1996-2011 by Andrew Tridgell, Wayne Davison, and others.

Web site: http://rsync.samba.org/

...

[230root@MacMini-13:48 ~]#alias ll

ls -lF