A. Overview of the File Reorganization Utility

Reorganization frees up data space on your system by removing deleted records and compressing the file. Through reorganization, file-processing speeds can be improved greatly in instances where a program is sequentially reading a keyed file. Since this is a common function on the AS/400, reorganizing files on a regular basis means you will get better performance from your system. The File Reorganization Utility is a tool for automating this process to ensure the system runs efficiently.

Take option 5 from the main menu to access the File Reorganization Utility. The tool enables you to enter the environment that you wish to reorganize. Enter the threshold of deleted records that must be exceeded in order for the file to be reorganized. In our example shown in Exhibit A, the threshold is set at 25 percent. If a file in the LAAMS leasing environment has 100 records than the file will be reorganized if more than 25 records are deleted from the file.

The tool allows you to specify how you would like the job to be run and when you would like the job to be run. Batch processing is usually preferable during the day when others are using the system. You may wish to run the job late at night when nobody is on the system to ensure that the files will not be in use and the reorganization job will not adversely affect performance. In our example, we have chosen to schedule the job to run in batch at 2:15 AM in the morning of January 7th 2002.

Exhibit A – Setting the File Reorganization Utility to run for the LAAMS environment at 2:15 AM for all files where 25 percent or more of the file’s records have been deleted.


After the reorganization job is run, a File Reorganization Log report will be created and sent to the spool file of the user that submitted the request. The report will detail which files were reorganized and how much space was freed up by the reorganization job. If you do not have a structured methodology in place to perform your reorgs, you may find that you just cleared up a phenomenal amount of space.

NOTE: EASY400 will handle most of the error handling associated with the file reorganization process but in the rare event of an abnormal system end or an abnormal end job (ENDJOBABN) you must rebuild the access path for the file that was being reorganized at the time. The File Reorganization Log should be helpful in determining what file was being reorganized when the job was ended abnormally.