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