diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 562d8b29309..73ae58a27f6 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -75,6 +75,10 @@ $Id$
     http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27491
     (Morus Walter via Otis)
 
+14. Changed so that the compound index format is used by default.
+    This makes indexing a bit slower, but vastly reduces the chances
+    of file handle problems.  (Cutting)
+
 
 1.3 final
 
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
index de7c08ca15c..b77a05e87ce 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/lucene/index/IndexWriter.java
@@ -112,10 +112,11 @@ public class IndexWriter {
 
   private Lock writeLock;
 
-  /** Use compound file setting. Defaults to false to maintain multiple files
-   *  per segment behavior.
+  /** Use compound file setting. Defaults to true, minimizing the number of
+   * files used.  Setting this to false may improve indexing performance, but
+   * may also cause file handle problems.
    */
-  private boolean useCompoundFile = false;
+  private boolean useCompoundFile = true;
 
 
   /** Setting to turn on usage of a compound file. When on, multiple files