Is there a file size limitation of the destination archive when using the lha archiver?

I'm aiming to back up my applications directory to an ext3 formatted usb drive (to preserve flags, etc), however the directory is around 12GB in size, so the resulting archive is likely to be 'large'.

ext3 should be able to handle the file size, but is there some limitation within lha (eg expected file length stored as 32-bit within the archive header), or is it a raw stream of compressed chunks until the end of file is reached?

Apologies if this has been asked before, I couldn't find the answers in 'readme's or forums, and I don't fancy spending a good day or two tying up my mac-mini by experimenting

diavolo backup?
http://amigazeux.net/diavolo/feat.php

there is a split file function in LHA, which works quite good.

Unfortunately its broken in the MorphOS Version. I am still using 1.38r for this.
Decrunching split files works in MorphOS

@Catohagen

Thanks for the link, however I could ask exactly the same question about Diavolo (or rather XPK).

@Digiman

I'd rather not split it if I don't have to. The question is whether lha (freed from ffs/sfs filesize limitations) can correctly produce a large (ie >4GB) archive?

I really think LHA needs support for LZMA compression as then it would provide a viable alternative to 7zip, the greatest compression system available.

You may also more memory than you have in you system, as lha sets up some kind of file name cache which is done before starting the compression.

I moved to tar gz to avoid such issues. For backup purpose I simply compress the drawers directory wise. Each game and each app gets one separate archive. Same for c,l,libs, devs,locale, morphos, ... This avoids an archive split and an easy way to install/restore only the stuff needed. You also do not loose all data,if the archive gets corrupted or lost.

Geit