[Bug-tar] GNU Tar 1.16.1 size limitation on multiple tape archive

[Petcher, Daniel]

I'm running SlackWare 12 with GNU tar 1.16.1 to throw a huge pile of
servers' backup data onto multiple LTO-3 tapes. The --create phase works
well, but when I rewind tapes and --diff the tape archive, the process
always stops on a certain 10 GB *.tar.bz2 file. I sorted my logs by filesize
and I see that there are no previous files larger than 3 GB.

Is it the huge filesize that's failing, or some complication of a tar.bz2
file embedded within my tape?

Is there anything I can do to overcome this limitation? Is there a 4 GB
barrier?

There is another file later in the archive that is 77 GB of binary data.
Will I need to do anthing special to handle this file.

Here is my create command:
tar --create --one-file-system --atime-preserve --totals --sparse -vv \
      --multi-volume --new-volume-script "nexttape" \
      2>> /tmp/tarc.err 1>> /tmp/tarc.out \
      --file /dev/nst0 -T /tmp/tapeindex.txt --label=$1 

Here is my verify command:
tar --compare --directory / --file /dev/nst0 --sparse -vv \
       --multi-volume --new-volume-script "nexttape" \
       2>>/tmp/tard.err 1>>/tmp/tard.out 


I parse the output with:
cat /tmp/tarc.out | awk '{print $3,$6}' | sort -n | tail

-dP