Dave, you have not been paying attention.. we've known and written about how to fix this for decades! :-).
You may also want to get out DFU DELE/DIRECTORY.
Mind you, you may need to first save away what you would like to retain in a fresh directory.
In comp.os.vms search for "hein delete sort"
And you'll find the skeleton script below.
Btw... Now that the XQP shuffles up and down with ACP_MAXREAD it could potential add value during the shuffle by peaking into the buffers. If it 'sees' the opportunity to compact the whole buffer by a block or so then it could do so and reduce the total blocks to be shuffled for that case and future shuffles.
Possible drawbacks
1) some slack / fill space is nice for files which come and go.
2) if the move gets interrupted the result will be messy / messier.
Hmmm, this is probably best left as a conscious decision as implemented by DFU DIRECTORY/COMPRESS/FILL versus an automatic, uncontrolled action by the XQP.
fwiw,
Hein
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.vms/search?group=comp.os.vms&q=hein+delete+sort&qt_g=Search+this+group$if p1.eqs."" then goto help ! Hein van den Heuvel, DIGITAL, Jan-1995
$directory/out=sys$Login:delete.tmp/col=1 'p1
$sort /key=(pos:1,siz:-1,desc) sys$Login:delete.tmp sys$Login:delete.tmp
$open/read/error=clean_up sorted sys$Login:delete.tmp
$init:
$read/end=clean_up sorted f
$l2 = f$len(f)
$if f$loc(";",f).eq.l2 then goto init
$files = f
$loop:
$read/end=done sorted f
$l1 = f$len(f)
$if f$loc(";",f).eq.l1 then goto loop
$if l2.lt.200
$ then
$ files = files + "," + f
$ l2 = l2 + l1 + 1
$ else
$ delete 'p2' 'files'
$ files = f
$ l2 = l1
$endif
$goto loop
$done:
$delete 'p2' 'files'
$clean_up:
$close/nolog sorted
$delete sys$Login:delete.tmp;,;
$exit
$help:
$type sys$input
Usage:
P1 (required) = wild card file spec, with optional DIR selection qualifiers
P2 (optional) = delete command qualifiers (/LOG or /CONFIRM)
$exit
