ISO9660 size question

[Lynn David Newton]

My previous post about cdrtools and xcdroast were just
a windup to a question.

Who can tell me what the correct upper limit on the
size of an iso9660 (CD image) file system is, in
blocks? Or in megabytes? 

That should be an easy question, but I can't lay my
hands on the answer.

My problem is this: My home directory now has 7014 MB
worth of files in it. I do backups to CD-RW disks. I'm
trying to redesign my scripts to break this up so that
I can save *everything*, but over a sequence of five
days. This means calculating how much space is in
various subtirectories, creating a list of directories
to backup, and creating ISO images.

I've seen mkisofs go ahead and make an iso image of
preposterously large proportions. It will issue a
warning, but it will make it.

Of course, if I try to burn that image onto a CD,
that's when I get a failure -- fortunately before it
starts burning the image.

But I don't know what number to shoot for. How large
can I make my ISO image before it goes over the wall?

Thanks for any help on this one.

-- 
Lynn David Newton
Phoenix, AZ