>> > > > And did you put a file   "exclude.gtar"   in there?
>> > > 
>> > > Yes, I did, and that got rid of the message.  But if amanda needs this
>> > > file, why doesn't it just create it?
>> > 
>> > Because it is a file you create specifying what you want to exclude.
>> > If you don't want to use it, don't list it in amanda.conf.
>> 
>> It wasn't necessary with 2.4.2  If it's necessary for 2.4.3, then why
>> isn't it installed with or created by that version?

Jon> Perhaps it is an added extra check that that should have been in
Jon> 2.4.2.  Extra checking is not a bad thing.
Jon> The file is not necessary.  

I really liked how it behaved in 2.4.2. You told Amanda to tell
gnu-tar to use an exclude file. Amanda didn't care if the exclude file
was there or not, and actually gnu-tar didn't care very much
either. Gnu-tar emits a warning that the exclude file doesn't exist,
and so it won't use it.

This was really nice. If you had file systems that you always wanted
everything backed up, it just worked. If you had file systems that you
wanted to exclude some things from, just create the exclude file at
the root of the file system, and presto, it works.

Now I have to create those empty exclude files everywhere. I know, I
could use different dump types for those filesystems I want to have
excludes on, but it was really nice not having to muck with the Amanda
configurations to exclude some stuff from a filesystem. All I have to
do is make a file on the client.

Anway, my $0.02.