rsync and inodes

[Paullmas]

rsync -aPc --link-dest=

The above is not working under a specific circumstance.

The destination repository creates hard links as expected if a file is not modified.
Rsync only transfers when checksum is different between src and dest.
However, sometimes, a new inode is created on the destination.
It appears this new inode is created without any transfer from src to dest(dest only).

Test one, same file chksum
(New inode is created)
sending incremental file list
created directory /media/exthd/testbu2
./
testme.jpg

sent 97 bytes received 18 bytes 76.67 bytes/sec (so no transfer?)
total size is 773457 speedup is 6725.71

Test two, nothing to compare to
(dummy link-dest path)
sending incremental file list
created directory /media/exthd/testbu2
--link-dest arg does not exist: /media/exthd/ol
./
testme.jpg
773457 100% 141.28MB/s 0:00:00 (xfer#1, to-check=0/2) (transfer from src to dest?)

sent 773686 bytes received 34 bytes 515813.33 bytes/sec
total size is 773457 speedup is 1.00

Why would a new inode be created on the destination, even though nothing has changed.

(I thought is was the timestamp, but I touched the file to change the timestamp and still new indoe was created)

version = rsync version 3.0.7 protocol version 30