After looking more closely, I'm even more confused.  Your gnutar-lists
files are being updated correctly, the big number on the first line is
Unix time, so your files were done at
level 4 - Wed Aug 21 23:45:48 2002 CDT
level 3 - Fri Aug 16 09:58:17 2002 CDT
level 2 - Thu Aug 15 11:27:54 2002 CDT
level 1 - Wed Aug 14 11:45:40 2002 CDT

which means that your tar is not working as advertised.  Just to satisfy
my curiosity, is the tar Amanda is using the version you think (1.13.19)?
According to the sendsize.*.debug file you posted earlier, Amanda is
calling /bin/gtar, so run '/bin/gtar --version' to make sure that's the
one you think it is.  I'm not being insulting, more than a few people on
the list have been bitten by Amanda using a different tar than expected,
and I'm really running out of ideas on things to check.
You might also try experimenting on a smaller directory using the same
command line Amanda is using (in sendsize debug) changing the gnutar-lists
file, and play around to see if it always returns the full size of the
directory.  Also consider asking on the gnu.utils.bug newsgroup.

Good luck,
Frank

[root amanda/Daily]% head
/var/amanda/gnutar-lists/beowulf_home_proj_bp-9725_4
1029991548
2081 19611660 ./contemp.cpuf/post
2081 19611665 ./contemp.cpuf/vis/plots
2081 20004866 ./calpuff/calmet
2081 19988482 ./calpuff
2081 19529746 ./calpuff/bc.post
2081 19939332 ./calpuff/calmet/upa
2081 16367618 ./calpuff/dep.con
2081 19955715 ./calpuff/calmet/sfc
2081 20135938 ./contemp.cpuf
[root amanda/Daily]% head
/var/amanda/gnutar-lists/beowulf_home_proj_bp-9725_3
1029509897
2081 19611660 ./contemp.cpuf/post
2081 19611665 ./contemp.cpuf/vis/plots
2081 20004866 ./calpuff/calmet
2081 19988482 ./calpuff
2081 19529746 ./calpuff/bc.post
2081 19939332 ./calpuff/calmet/upa
2081 16367618 ./calpuff/dep.con
2081 19955715 ./calpuff/calmet/sfc
2081 20135938 ./contemp.cpuf
[root amanda/Daily]% head
/var/amanda/gnutar-lists/beowulf_home_proj_bp-9725_2
1029428874
2081 19611660 ./contemp.cpuf/post
2081 19611665 ./contemp.cpuf/vis/plots
2081 20004866 ./calpuff/calmet
2081 19988482 ./calpuff
2081 19529746 ./calpuff/bc.post
2081 19939332 ./calpuff/calmet/upa
2081 16367618 ./calpuff/dep.con
2081 19955715 ./calpuff/calmet/sfc
2081 20135938 ./contemp.cpuf
[root amanda/Daily]% head
/var/amanda/gnutar-lists/beowulf_home_proj_bp-9725_1
1029343540
2081 19611660 ./contemp.cpuf/post
2081 19611665 ./contemp.cpuf/vis/plots
2081 20004866 ./calpuff/calmet
2081 19988482 ./calpuff
2081 19529746 ./calpuff/bc.post
2081 19939332 ./calpuff/calmet/upa
2081 16367618 ./calpuff/dep.con
2081 19955715 ./calpuff/calmet/sfc
2081 20135938 ./contemp.cpuf

--
Frank Smith                                                fsmith AT hoovers 
DOT com
Systems Administrator                                     Voice: 512-374-4673
Hoover's Online                                             Fax: 512-374-4501