I have recently added a third key to an index file and consequently updates now take an eternity. My knowledge on fdl's is minimal. Is there anyone out there who could give me some advice on optimising RMS files?? Here is the FDL for the file:- SYSTEM SOURCE OpenVMS FILE ALLOCATION 194940 BEST_TRY_CONTIGUOUS no BUCKET_SIZE 6 CLUSTER_SIZE 9 CONTIGUOUS no EXTENSION 0 FILE_MONITORING no GLOBAL_BUFFER_COUNT 0 ORGANIZATION indexed OWNER [SYSUSER] PROTECTION (system:RWE, owner:RWED, group:RWE, world:RWE) RECORD BLOCK_SPAN yes CARRIAGE_CONTROL carriage_return FORMAT variable SIZE 2760 AREA 0 ALLOCATION 170784 BEST_TRY_CONTIGUOUS yes BUCKET_SIZE 6 EXTENSION 0 AREA 1 ALLOCATION 1071 BEST_TRY_CONTIGUOUS yes BUCKET_SIZE 6 EXTENSION 0 AREA 2 ALLOCATION 23078 BEST_TRY_CONTIGUOUS yes BUCKET_SIZE 3 EXTENSION 6 KEY 0 CHANGES no DATA_KEY_COMPRESSION yes DATA_RECORD_COMPRESSION yes DATA_AREA 0 DATA_FILL 100 DUPLICATES no INDEX_AREA 1 INDEX_COMPRESSION yes INDEX_FILL 100 LEVEL1_INDEX_AREA 1 NAME "" NULL_KEY no PROLOG 3 SEG0_LENGTH 30 SEG0_POSITION 0 TYPE string KEY 1 CHANGES yes DATA_KEY_COMPRESSION yes DATA_AREA 2 DATA_FILL 100 DUPLICATES yes INDEX_AREA 2 INDEX_COMPRESSION no INDEX_FILL 100 LEVEL1_INDEX_AREA 2 NAME "TYPE+ACCD" NULL_KEY no SEG0_LENGTH 1 SEG0_POSITION 9 SEG1_LENGTH 3 SEG1_POSITION 30 SEG2_LENGTH 9 SEG2_POSITION 0 TYPE string KEY 2 CHANGES yes DATA_KEY_COMPRESSION yes DATA_AREA 2 DATA_FILL 100 DUPLICATES yes INDEX_AREA 2 INDEX_COMPRESSION no INDEX_FILL 100 LEVEL1_INDEX_AREA 2 NAME "TYPE+TEMP" NULL_KEY no SEG0_LENGTH 1 SEG0_POSITION 9 SEG1_LENGTH 25 SEG1_POSITION 112 TYPE string ANALYSIS_OF_AREA 0 RECLAIMED_SPACE 0 ANALYSIS_OF_AREA 1 RECLAIMED_SPACE 0 ANALYSIS_OF_AREA 2 RECLAIMED_SPACE 0 ANALYSIS_OF_KEY 0 DATA_FILL 93 DATA_KEY_COMPRESSION 77 DATA_RECORD_COMPRESSION 71 DATA_RECORD_COUNT 716728 DATA_SPACE_OCCUPIED 126072 DEPTH 3 INDEX_COMPRESSION 47 INDEX_FILL 82 INDEX_SPACE_OCCUPIED 858 LEVEL1_RECORD_COUNT 21012 MEAN_DATA_LENGTH 263 MEAN_INDEX_LENGTH 33 ANALYSIS_OF_KEY 1 DATA_FILL 84 DATA_KEY_COMPRESSION 50 DATA_RECORD_COUNT 36932 DATA_SPACE_OCCUPIED 12450 DEPTH 2 DUPLICATES_PER_SIDR 18 INDEX_COMPRESSION 0 INDEX_FILL 53 INDEX_SPACE_OCCUPIED 138 LEVEL1_RECORD_COUNT 2244 MEAN_DATA_LENGTH 144 MEAN_INDEX_LENGTH 16 ANALYSIS_OF_KEY 2 DATA_FILL 96 DATA_KEY_COMPRESSION 84 DATA_RECORD_COUNT 3382 DATA_SPACE_OCCUPIED 10200 DEPTH 1 DUPLICATES_PER_SIDR 210 INDEX_COMPRESSION 0 INDEX_FILL 6 INDEX_SPACE_OCCUPIED 3 LEVEL1_RECORD_COUNT 3 MEAN_DATA_LENGTH 1481 MEAN_INDEX_LENGTH 29

There is a fairly easy way to do this, and you'll need to follow these instructions to the letter. It is possible that the indexed file has become internally fragmented, and that its index is not efficiently organised. The following should sort out both issues. This does not however relate to actual disk fragmentation, or some other reason that could be slowing access down. $ anal/rms/fdl filename.ext $ edit/fdl/nointer/anal=filename filename $ convert/fdl=filename filename.ext filename (note .ext missed to prevent wrapping) You can change the file names above to be new file, new FDL etc, but hopefully you get the gist of how to do this. OpenVMS generally will create a higher numbered version. If you get errors reported, then use HELP/ERROR or the online documentation to diagnose. The optimization of the file will be 'general' but it should help tune the index for 'default' conditions. EDIT/FDL does have an optimization script which you see if not using /NOINTER but it's use should only be when you know what you are doing. Do not delete the old copy of the file until you are happy with the new copy of the file! Hope this helps.