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32th chunk of `rsync.man`
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 speak  an
              older  protocol (perhaps due to the remote rsync being older than
              3.0.0) a modify time is conveyed using 4‐bytes. Prior  to  3.2.7,
              these  shorter values could convey a date range of 13‐Dec‐1901 to
              19‐Jan‐2038.  Beginning with 3.2.7, these 4‐byte values now  con‐
              vey  a date range of 1‐Jan‐1970 to 7‐Feb‐2106.  If you have files
              dated older than 1970, make sure your rsync executables  are  up‐
              graded so that the full range of dates can be conveyed.

       --atimes, -U
              This tells rsync to set the access (use) times of the destination
              files to the same value as the source files.

              If  repeated,  it  also sets the --open‐noatime option, which can
              help you to make the sending and receiving systems have the  same
              access  times  on  the  transferred  files without needing to run
              rsync an extra time after a file is transferred.

              Note that some older rsync versions (prior  to  3.2.0)  may  have
              been  built with a pre‐release --atimes patch that does not imply
              --open‐noatime when this option is repeated.

       --open‐noatime
              This tells rsync to open files with the O_NOATIME flag  (on  sys‐
              tems  that  support  it) to avoid changing the access time of the
              files that are being transferred.  If your OS  does  not  support
              the  O_NOATIME  flag then rsync will silently ignore this option.
              Note also that some filesystems are mounted to avoid updating the
              atime on read access even without the O_NOATIME flag being set.

       --crtimes, -N,
              This tells rsync to set the create times (newness) of the  desti‐
              nation files to the same value as the source files.

       --omit‐dir‐times, -O
              This  tells rsync to omit directories when it is preserving modi‐
              fication, access, and create times.  If NFS is sharing the direc‐
              tories on the receiving side, it is a good idea to use -O.   This
              option is inferred if you use --backup without --backup‐dir.

              This  option  also has the side‐effect of avoiding early creation
              of missing sub‐directories when incremental recursion is enabled,
              as discussed in the --inc‐recursive section.

       --omit‐link‐times, -J
              This tells rsync to omit symlinks when it is preserving modifica‐
              tion, access, and create times.

       --super
              This tells the receiving side to  attempt  super‐user  activities
              even  if the receiving rsync wasn’t run by the super‐user.  These
              activities include: preserving users via the --owner option, pre‐
              serving all groups (not just the current user’s groups)  via  the
              --group  option,  and  copying  devices via the --devices option.
              This is useful for systems that allow such activities without be‐
              ing the super‐user, and also for ensuring that you will  get  er‐
              rors if the receiving side isn’t being run as the super‐user.  To
              turn  off  super‐user activities, the super‐user can use --no‐su‐
              per.

       --fake‐super
              When this option is enabled, rsync simulates  super‐user  activi‐
              ties  by  saving/restoring  the privileged attributes via special
              extended attributes that are attached to each file  (as  needed).
              This  includes  the  file’s owner and group (if it is not the de‐
              fault), the file’s device info (device & special files  are  cre‐
              ated  as empty text files), and any permission bits that we won’t
              allow to be set on the real file (e.g. the real file gets  u‐s,g‐
              s,o‐t  for  safety)
Title: Rsync Options: Time Preservation, Super-User Activities, and Fake Super
Summary
This section describes rsync options including: how older rsync versions handle modification times, '--atimes' for setting access times and its implication with '--open-noatime', '--open-noatime' for avoiding changes to access times, '--crtimes' for preserving create times, '--omit-dir-times' and '--omit-link-times' for excluding directories and symlinks when preserving times, '--super' for enabling super-user activities on the receiving end even without super-user privileges, and '--fake-super' for simulating super-user activities by storing privileged attributes in extended attributes.