Rocket® COBOL

This article identifies different behaviors of "call system" between UNIX environments. Problem: The user program makes a call to system, for example: call "system" using "ls -la" On one system this works as expected, whereas on another it is necessary to add x"00" to the end of the command-line. For example: 01 WORK-COMMAND. 03 COMMAND PIC X(050) VALUE "ls -la" . 03 FILLER PIX X(002) VALUE X" 00" . procedure division.CALL "SYSTEM" USING WORK-COMMAND. Why is this? Resolution: This behavior depends on the case used in the CALL statement. call "system" (all lower-case) calls the OS system utility. This is platform specific, and may give unexpected terminal display results. When you are using the MF function CALL "SYSTEM" (upper-case) you must use x"00" to terminate the command. Incident Number:

This article addresses what to do when an XFD Directive does not check to ensure the Date mask matches the Picture clause. Problem: The Compiler $set createxfd (xfd-directory=C:\\...) Directive does not check to ensure that the Date mask matches the COBOL Picture clause. This results in parse errors with MFXDBC when loading the resultant XFD into the System Catalog. For example, the following will compile and build the XFD without an error reported. This generates a parse error with MFXDBUTIL.bat.: $xfd date=yyyymmdd 03 BMRT-PAYEE-DOB PIC 9(9) COMP. Resolution: In order to resolve this, either modify the Date directive or the COBOL Picture clause so that they match, as follows: $xfd date=yyyyymmdd 03 BMRT-PAYEE-DOB PIC 9(9) COMP. or $xfd date=yyyymmdd 03 BMRT-PAYEE-DOB PIC 9(8) COMP. Incident Number: 2278907 Date: 18 May 2009 Name: Angela Clark Description of change: Date: Name: Description of change: Old

This article explains how a Net Express request key is generated to activate the product. Problem: How is a  Net Express request key generated in order to activate the product? Resolution: From the Windows Start menu, click Programs > Net Express > Configuration > License Management System. The License Management System Configuration window should appear. Check your product and its components. Click Generate full license. Using the generated license key, go to the Licensing Solution web pages at http://supportline.microfocus.com/licensing/LicensingHome.aspto generate your own product activation key. Use the response key generated from the License Solution web pages to activate the product. Old KB# 14433#COBOL#Licensing#netexpress

This article addresses a known issue regarding the inability to use DB2 option REOPT with Net Express for binding parameters. Problem: The REOPT DB2 directive is currently not supported and the REOPT_VARS directive, which is an older form of the directive, is supported but not working properly. Is there a fix for this? Resolution: The HotFix level 3 for Net Express version 5.1 WrapPack (WebSync) 03 is available which supports the REOPT DB2 directive for binding parameters. Please contact Micro Focus SupportLine if this HotFix is required. Incident Number: 2280263 Old KB# 14374

This article explains what you can do if you receive this error during compilation. Problem: This error may occur during compilation: “cobchecker64: fatal: relocation error symbol check: referenced symbol not found”. The text of the error message will resemble the following: ld.so.1: cobchecker64: fatal: relocation error: file /opt/cobolse5wp4_64/bin/cobchecker64: symbol check: referenced symbol not found. This is caused by a mistake in the library path environment variable. Resolution: On AIX, the name of the library path environment variable is LIBPATH. On 32-bit HP/UX, it is SHLIB_PATH, and on all other UNIX and Linux platforms, it is LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The environment variable is supposed to contain a colon-delimited list of directory locations where the system linker should look for libraries. When using Server Express, this must include $COBDIR/lib (where $COBDIR is an environment variable pointing to the install location of Serve

This article explains why a 211 error occurs when trying to run a program that was ported from another server. Problem: When I was trying to run a program that was ported from another server, a 211 error occurs. Specifically, the message received was a load error 211 pc=0, call=1, seg=20 211 program not executable by runtime system. Why is this happening? Resolution: The reason this error is occurring is because the program is 64 bit and was ported over from another system to one whose Server Express product and/or hardware is 32 bit only. This problem can occur on AIX systems with Server Express prior to version 4.0SP2. The 32 and 64 bit versions for AIX were separate products until version 4.0SP2 was released. If a program is compiled with the 64 bit product on an AIX system and run with COBDIR, PATH, and LIBPATH set for the 32 bit product, error 211 will occur. The same is true for 64 bit code ported to any AIX 4.3.3 system. That version of AIX is 32 bit only. A few

When a program is selected in the Browse tool, the .idy file of the program is locked. Problem: When a program is selected in the Browse tool, the .idy file of the program is locked. Therefore, the .idy file cannot be deleted or moved. Resolution: This problem is present in all versions before Net Express 5.1, and has been resolved in Net Express 5.1. Incident Number: 2125448 Old KB# 14382

This article describes what to do if your bitmap buttons show poorly when disabling them. Problem: You have a program with bitmap buttons that display as expected, but they display poorly when disabling them. Resolution: When you disable a button, Windows will turn most of the colored area of the bitmap gray. A clearly defined button with clear cut lines and colors will turn into gray nicely. However, if you have lots of loose points that define colors and depth you risk having a very big gray area without form. In this case, clean the bitmap and define a clear form with a straight outside color. Additionally, you can read and apply the principles found in the ACUCOBOL-GT User Interface Programming manual, chapter 3, section 3.7.1 Drawing the Image. Incident Number: 2263605 Old KB# 14425

This article describes how to decode RETURN-CODE after calling a CBL_ file handling library routine. Problem: When the RETURN-CODE is NON-ZERO after calling a CBL_ file library routine how can it be decoded in order to provide information about the cause of the failure? Resolution: The return code is X'0000' if it has been successful. If it has not been successful, the return code is 9<byte> where byte is PIC 9(4) COMP. For example, if the file status is 9/188 (file name too large), the return code will be X'39BC', where "39" is the ASCII character "9" and "BC" is decimal 188. If the RETURN-CODE special register is inspected or displayed in decimal, the value will be 14780 (X'39BC' converted literally to decimal). The easiest way to decode the RETURN-CODE is to move it to a data item which describes FILE STATUS. 01 file-status pic xx comp-x. 01 redefines file-status. 03 fs-byte-1 pic x. 03 fs-

This article addresses what to do if you receive a "Failed to load component vsxrte" message when applying the latest WrapPack of Net Express 4.0. Problem: During the install of the latest WrapPack of Net Express 4.0 (ALL08N40.EXE), the IDE FixPack is failing with the following error messages: Failed to load component vsxrte Invalid access to memory location [Abort] [Retry] [Ignore] The above is followed by the message: Microsoft Visual C Runtime Library Runtime Error! Program: This application has requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information.[OK] From this point, the WrapPack resumes the install with the rest of the FixPacks. At the end, it reports that the following FixPacks were not installed: RTS10N40.EXE, XFH10N40.EXE, and CMP10N40.EXE. Obviously, IDE11N40.EXE was not installed either. Resolution: 1. Stop the Micro Focus Directory Server service by going to Control Panel, Administrator

This article describes how to overcome the following error produced by the rebuild command: “***Error during sort operation - status 9-037”. Problem: While rebuilding data files with the ‘rebuild’ command, the following error appears: “***Error during sort operation - status 9-037”. What is it and how can it be resolved? Resolution: File status 9-037 indicates a permission problem. It means rebuild does not have permission to create a particular file. Check that the user has write permissions on the output file specified on the "rebuild" command. The rebuild command also creates temporary work files while it runs. By default it tries to create these temporary files in the current directory, so the user must have write permissions in the current directory. If the TMPDIR environment variable is set, rebuild will create its temporary files there, so the user must have write permissions there. In one historical case, an en

This article explains what to do if the message No license AS GLOBAL occurs. Problem: After a new installation or upgrade of Server Express, we are unable to run compiled programs and receive the following No license AS GLOBAL error message. Why is this happening? /var/mfaslmf > cat USERLOG Mon Jan 28 06:40:41 PST 2008: No license AS GLOBAL Resolution: This error occurs because there are no valid Developer Usage licenses in a Server Express product. Either the licenses don't exist or they are expired. There may be a number of Application Server or Server CPU licenses installed. The most common cause for this is installing the Server Express product instead of Server for COBOL. If no compiling will be done on this machine, remove the entire $COBDIR directory and install the correct product. Also remove any /etc/mflmrcscript files. Make sure $COBDIR points to a Server for COBOL product directory. If Server Express is also to be used on t

This article explains what to do when a 013-R illegal intermediate code (at 0X101 in seg 0) occurs during a rebuild of an object oriented Cobol program in Net Express 3.1. Problem: When rebuilding an object oriented Cobol program in Net Express 3.1 the project failed with a “Rebuild complete with errors” message, and then displayed the following message code: 013-R Illegal intermediate code (at 0X101 in seg 0). Resolution: This can be resolved by using a Net Express 3.1 FixPack. Go to www.microfocus.com Click on Support Click on SupportLine Home Login Click on Product Updates on the left panel Scan to bottom of screen and click on Product Archives Scan down the screen to Net Express 3.1 Service Pack 1 Install the FixPacks: ide15n31.exe and cmp16n31.exe Incident Number: 2280262 Old KB# 14393

The maximum number of tabs/sessions allowed in RUMBA Notebook. Problem: What is the maximum number of RUMBA printer sessions allowed in RUMBA Notebook? Resolution: The RUMBA Notebook is a program that allows users to run a number of applications at the same time. These applications may include different components of the same version of RUMBA software and Windows applications such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. Each application or RUMBA window is run in a separate tab of the Notebook. There is no hard coded limit on the number of tabs that can be opened in the notebook session. It depends on the size of the memory of the workstation that RUMBA notebook is running on. Incident Number: 2279305 Old KB# 14430#Rumba

This article describes the changes required to run multiple instances of OnWeb server on an iSeries. Problem: When multiple instances of OnWeb Server are required to run on the same iSeries configuration changes are necessary to avoid resource contention. What are these? Resolution: You can install multiple OnWeb Servers on an iSeries system byperforming the following steps: Specify a different HTTP Server directory Install the second instance of OnWeb Server into a different BaseLibrary and installation directory on the IFS. During theinstallation make sure you specify a unique Internal Server Portnumber Due to restrictions in the operating system, it is only permissibleto have one active subsystem with the same name. When installingmore than one server on the same iSeries, you will have to renamethe subsystem of the subsequent server(s) from OnWeb to a differentname. Enter the following commands:RNMOBJ OBJ(Base_Library/ONWEB)OBJTYPE(*SBSD) NEWOBJ(Subsystem_Name) CHGDTAARA DT

This article explains why Deletion of Service Interface fields with many subordinate fields hangs for a long period of time. Problem: The process to delete a large Service Interface field in Interface Mapping Toolkit consumes the CPU usage at 100% for a long period, and causes it to hang for a long period of time. This problem is an internal one where the deletion function is doing extra unnecessary manipulation of internal structures, especially when deleting a field that has many subordinate fields. Resolution: This problem was identified in Net Express 5.0, and has now been fixed in Net Express 5.1. Incident Number: 2154960 Old KB# 14380

Read-only entry fields no longer change background/foreground colors with 8.1.0. They are shown only in gray. Problem: Read-only Entry Fields used to allow their foreground or background colors to be modified. The Runtime version 8.1.0 stops this behavior, and leaves the read-only field gray. Resolution: This change was made to follow Windows standards and was implemented with ECN-3699 released in 8.1.0. You can turn this behavior off so that your applications will not be affected by this change. Set the following configuration variable in cblconfi: ECN-3699 0 The value "0" turns the ECN off, value "1" activates the ECN and entry-fields remain gray. This configuration variable has been introduced in ECN-3848, available in the future release of ACUCOBOL-GT 9.0. Incident Number: 2131301 Old KB# 14428

This article explains how to create and print a hardcopy compilation listing using TBOX / SDE developers tool. Problem: One of the options within SDE during program compilation is to create a listing file. This option is enabled by using F4 while the compilation command menu is displayed. By default this listing is not automatically sent to a printer. How can you get the SDE or TBOX integrated development tools send listing to a printer? Resolution: In order to have the SDE or TBOX integrated development tools send a listing to a printer, the environment needs to be set to force the listing output to a system printer. Before starting SDE or TBOX set an environment variable named DD_LST so that it contains the command needed to ‘pipe’ output to the system’s ‘lp’ command. For example: export DD_LST=”> lp”.Then start the development tool SDE. This will cause the listing created during the compile to be routed to the system print

This article addresses what to do when an error occurs while installing Server Express 5.0 on LINUX. Problem: When installing Server Express version 5.0 on LINUX the following error occurs: "bin/cobconvstrtest: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc .so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" Resolution: The Server Express version 5.0 product for LINUX is a dual mode product, meaning it supports both 32 bit and 64 bit COBOL applications. During installation of Server Express 5.0 the install script searches for the 32-bit gcc libraries (libstdc .so.6) located in /usr/lib. If the operating system on the target machine is 64-bit only, then the 64-bit gcc (libstdc .so.6) is installed in /usr/lib64 and the 32-bit libraries are not installed. This error message occurs when the target machine is setup to run only as 64-bit. That is, the target machine does not have the gcc 32-bit installed. The resolution is to download an

This article explains how to capture the process ID for the currently running COBOL application. Problem: How can the process ID (PID) within a running COBOL program be captured? Resolution: To capture the process ID for a currently running COBOL application, you can code a COBOL CALL statement to use the system function getpid(). The standard C libraries contain the function getpid(), which can easily be called/used from within a COBOL program. Sample COBOL code fragments Sample program fragment Include the ctypes copy file from within the COBOL product directory as the first line in the COBOL program. copy '$COBDIR/demo/c-cobol/ctypes.cpy' WORKING-STORAGE SECTION DATA DIVISION Define the data item where the process id should be returned 01 current-pid long PROCEDURE DIVISION Call 'getpid' returning current-pid The returned integer can be used as a part of temporary filenames, or to identify log file en

This article explains how to display active sessions when using the Connection Viewer to monitor RSS clients. Problem: After installing and configuring RSS Server on Windows Server 2003, the Connection Viewer application doesn’t properly display the currently active sessions. Is this due to insufficient permissions granted to the account under which the Connection Viewer is running? If so, how can this be resolved? Resolution: To remedy the problem, find the account that is configured in IIS: On the IIS server where RSS is installed, open the IIS Services Manager Navigate to the Web server instance they are using.  Right click and select “Properties”. In the Web Site Properties dialog, select the “Directory Security” tab. Under the “Authentication and access control” section, click the “Edit…” button. If the “Enable anonymous access” checkbox is selected, make a note of the account in the “User Name” field. Check to see if “Integrated Windows

Attempting to launch the Web to Host configuration wizard on Windows Vista gives the error message: "No valid extensions are available for configuration!". Problem: When attempting to access a local installation of Web to Host on a Windows Vista PC the following error is encountered: ‘No valid extensions are available for configuration!’ Resolution: This is a result of the MIME type changes noted below and documented by Microsoft at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326965 For some reason .htpl files are not recognized by IIS server. After adding *(text/plain) to MIME types on IIS server, those files are read correctly. Old KB# 14431#Web-to-Host#Rumba#OnWeb#ProClient

This article explains why the ViewNow X server does not honor the –geometry parameter when starting X clients. Problem: When X clients are started with the –geometry parameter, ViewNow X server doesn’t honor the position information given. Why is this? Resolution: In ViewNow X, the –geometry flag is overridden by settings in the server which are intended to prevent windows from inadvertently obscuring each other. These settings can be changed to prevent this behavior by performing the following steps: Launch the ViewNow X control panel. From the Start menu, go to Start > Programs > ViewNow > X Windows > Control Panel. Alternatively, launch \\Program Files\\NetManage\\APPS\\X\\CPanel.exe from the command line. From the Options menu, select “Window…” On the Window Management dialog, uncheck the “Cascade Windows” option. Click OK to dismiss the dialog. Re-launch the ViewNow XServer. Subsequent invocations of X clients with the –geometry parameter present will now appe

This article describes the proper alignment of data within a COBOL group item using the ‘h2cpy’ utility. Problem: When creating COBOL applications which use C language routines and data is passed within a struct (structure) the alignment rules for COBOL do not always agree with the rules used when defining the struct in C. When a struct is defined in C, the alignment of data items on proper boundaries occurs automatically. When attempting to duplicate the definition of the struct in COBOL, there is no automatic adjustment for alignment rules. How is it possible to achieve alignment of data within C language structures? Resolution: An easy way to achieve the proper alignment of data within a COBOL group item is to use the utility ‘h2cpy’ which is delivered with the Server Express product. The h2cpy utility uses a C language header file (.h) as input and it produces a COBOL copyfile (.cpy). The structures found in the .h file will be translated to

This article explains how to prevent the command line from discontinuing processing a batch compile to ask the user for input. Using the given directives will ensure that it continues the whole way through. Problem: When compiling a long list of applications, there may be the need to ignore some errors and just continue on to the next application. Normally, if the compiler comes across a reference to a copybook that cannot be found, the user is prompted to Stop/Retry/Continue/Alter-path and the user must select one of the options before the compiler will continue. This is not the desired behavior when running batch compiles. Resolution: To avoid the batch stoppage, the user can specify the compiler directive NOQUERY. It details that for each missing copybook the compiler encounters; it will produce an error message and continue without any interface with the user. This is the ‘Continue’ option that the user was presented with before. The user should also