the gaps in my knowledge seem to close slowly sometimes...

Thanks Jon for the fill-in on exclude list - you were right - I was
confused by the description in the sample amanda.conf and the word
pattern isn't supposed to be included - nor the ` or ' - amazing the
stupid things that I do and the way I can take things way too literally
some times.

Anyway...

1 - during backup - first tape has filled - apparently ejected (I am
doing this remotely) but no email from 'chg-manual' which from reading
the code within, should be coming but hasn't. I do get summaries after
completion of backup process - is there something I need to do to make
the request for tape swap email?

2 - I am using a Sony SDT-9000 - which by the way, if anyone is
interested - results from tapetype...
define tapetype unknown-tapetype {
    comment "just produced by tapetype program"
    length 9675 mbytes
    filemark 88 kbytes
    speed 762 kps
}
anyway...I figure it's better to use the hardware compression and forget
the software compression - Agreed?

Do I adjust the numbers of the 'length?'
Does the length of 9675 seem small for a DDS-3 (125 meter / supposedly
12/24 Gigabyte or does formatting / filemarks / labels /etc cut 20%?

Thanks,

Craig

sysinfo follows if desired (RH 7.2) / kernel 2.4.20-19

amadmin Archive version
build: VERSION="Amanda-2.4.2p2"
       BUILT_DATE="Fri Jul 13 18:48:49 EDT 2001"
       BUILT_MACH="Linux stripples.devel.redhat.com 2.4.5-10enterprise
#1 SMP Wed Jun 27 14:01:18 EDT 2001 i686 unknown"
       CC="gcc"
paths: bindir="/usr/bin" sbindir="/usr/sbin"
       libexecdir="/usr/lib/amanda" mandir="/usr/share/man"
       AMANDA_TMPDIR="/tmp/amanda" AMANDA_DBGDIR="/tmp/amanda"
       CONFIG_DIR="/etc/amanda" DEV_PREFIX="/dev/"
       RDEV_PREFIX="/dev/r" DUMP="/sbin/dump"
       RESTORE="/sbin/restore" SAMBA_CLIENT="/usr/bin/smbclient"
       GNUTAR="/bin/tar" COMPRESS_PATH="/usr/bin/gzip"
       UNCOMPRESS_PATH="/usr/bin/gzip" MAILER="/usr/bin/Mail"
       listed_incr_dir="/var/lib/amanda/gnutar-lists"
defs:  DEFAULT_SERVER="localhost" DEFAULT_CONFIG="DailySet1"
       DEFAULT_TAPE_SERVER="localhost"
       DEFAULT_TAPE_DEVICE="/dev/null" HAVE_MMAP HAVE_SYSVSHM
       LOCKING=POSIX_FCNTL SETPGRP_VOID DEBUG_CODE
       AMANDA_DEBUG_DAYS=4 BSD_SECURITY USE_AMANDAHOSTS
       CLIENT_LOGIN="amanda" FORCE_USERID HAVE_GZIP
       COMPRESS_SUFFIX=".gz" COMPRESS_FAST_OPT="--fast"
       COMPRESS_BEST_OPT="--best" UNCOMPRESS_OPT="-dc"