Michal is correct. I have done exhaustive tests which revealed that the differences are due to the presence of a trailing slash in the destination specification. A simple test using /tmp/x44 as the destination follows: ***Last component does not exist and dest has trailing slash (results differ) 3.3.6 ./xrdcp /etc/passwd root://rhel6-64a//tmp/x44/newdir/ [xrootd] Total 0.00 MB |====================| 100.00 % [0.3 MB/s] ls -lr /tmp/x44 total 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 abh sf 2018 Jun 20 15:02 newdir 4.2.1 ./xrdcp /etc/passwd root://rhel6-64a//tmp/x44/newdir/ [0B/0B][100%][==================================================][0B/s] Run: [ERROR] Server responded with an error: [3016] Unable to create /tmp/x44/newdir/; is a directory sls -lr /tmp/x44 total 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 abh sf 4096 Jun 20 14:58 newdir/ ***Last component does not exist and dest does not have a trailing slash (results identical) 3.3.6 ./xrdcp /etc/passwd root://rhel6-64a//tmp/x44/newdir [xrootd] Total 0.00 MB |====================| 100.00 % [0.3 MB/s] ls -lr /tmp/x44 total 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 abh sf 2018 Jun 20 15:04 newdir 4.2.1 ./xrdcp /etc/passwd root://rhel6-64a//tmp/x44/newdir [1.971kB/1.971kB][100%][==================================================][1.971kB/s] ls -lr /tmp/x44 total 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 abh sf 2018 Jun 20 14:54 newdir *** Last component exists and is a directory and dest has trailing slash (results differ) 3.3.6 /xrdcp /etc/passwd root://rhel6-64a//tmp/x44/ xrdcp: Copy to rhel6-64a.slac.stanford.edu failed on open! xrdcp: Unable to create /tmp/x44; file exists ls -lr /tmp/x44 total 0 4.2.1 ./xrdcp /etc/passwd root://rhel6-64a//tmp/x44/ [1.971kB/1.971kB][100%][==================================================][1.971kB/s] ls -lr /tmp/x44 total 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 abh sf 2018 Jun 20 14:59 passwd *** Last component exists and is a directory and dest does not have a trailing slash (results differ) 3.3.6 ./xrdcp /etc/passwd root://rhel6-64a//tmp/x44 xrdcp: Copy to rhel6-64a.slac.stanford.edu failed on open! xrdcp: Unable to create /tmp/x44; file exists ls -lr /tmp/x44 total 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 abh sf 2018 Jun 20 14:59 passwd 4.2.1 ./xrdcp /etc/passwd root://rhel6-64a//tmp/x44 [1.971kB/1.971kB][100%][==================================================][1.971kB/s] ls -lr /tmp/x44 total 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 abh sf 2018 Jun 20 15:00 passwd -------------------- I will discuss these results in a subsequent post. --- Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/xrootd/xrootd/issues/243#issuecomment-113829933 ######################################################################## Use REPLY-ALL to reply to list To unsubscribe from the XROOTD-DEV list, click the following link: https://listserv.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=XROOTD-DEV&A=1