>> [Doug whining because he has to create those empty exlude files ...]

Jean-Louis> You can use the keyword 'optional' on your exclude
Jean-Louis> specification and amanda will not complain if the file
Jean-Louis> doesn't exist. You don't have to create empty files.

Cool! I don't see the particular syntax in the man page. (I was afraid
I'd just not read the page closely enough after the upgrade.  :))

Does this syntax work?

define dumptype tar {
        defaults
        program  "GNUTAR"
        optional exclude list    ".amanda.excludes"
}