OK - I am really trying not to pester you guys and work these things
through by myself...

If I have in my 'disklist'

localhost /home high-tar
localhost /home/samba high-tar
localhost /home/samba/files high-tar

and in my global config I have it exclude ".amanda-exludes"
 (of course high-tar pulls from root-tar which pulls from global)

and in my /home/.amanda-excludes I have
pattern `./samba'

and in my /home/samba/.amanda-excludes I have
pattern `./files'

I get 
localhost:/home                          0 [dump larger than tape, but
cannot incremental dump new disk]
localhost:/home/samba                    0 [dump larger than tape, but
cannot incremental dump new disk]
localhost:/home/samba/files              020546130k dumping to tape
(16:18:20)
 
but if I comment out the others, I have no problems with the dump being
larger than tape...for example, I just commented out the 
localhost /home high-tar
localhost /home/samba/files high-tar

and then - localhost /home/samba high-tar backs up...

localhost:/home/samba                    028198570k dumping to tape
(16:22:15)

In other words, each of those file systems will back up if they are the
only one being backed up but if I include all 3, only the
/home/samba/files will back up and it is the largest of all of them when
the .amanda-excludes are considered.
 
What gives? - any clues?

Craig