cp -a refuses to devolve file mode

[Elmar Stellnberger]

cp -a refuses to devolve the file mode when I copy a certain file
between two ext3 volumes
whereas it does not report any error:

> cat syncit
cp -a /home/./downloads/system/freebsd/bootstrap/etch/debootstrap
/mnt/home-mirror/home/./downloads/system/freebsd/bootstrap/etch/debootstrap
echo $?
for i in /home /mnt/home-mirror/home; do ls -l
"$i/./downloads/system/freebsd/bootstrap/etch/debootstrap"; done

>./syncit
0
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root users 34 Jan 21 04:56
/home/./downloads/system/freebsd/bootstrap/etch/debootstrap ->
/compat/linux/usr/sbin/debootstrap
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root users 34 Feb  3 17:06
/mnt/home-mirror/home/./downloads/system/freebsd/bootstrap/etch/debootstrap
-> /compat/linux/usr/sbin/debootstrap

The file mode should be the same since cp has just successfully copied
that file.
I could not reproduce this behaviour in an artificial test setting.
Please answer me as soon as possible to issue further tests
since I do not know for how long this anomaly will hold.