Rocket® COBOL

Problem: NFSFILELOCK causes the file handler to apply a lock in such a way that the application will gain exclusive access to a file against other applications.  It is not a good alternative to fileshare, since it provides no locking against applications not using NFSFILELOCK. Resolution: The functionality is available in all genesis products i.e. SX, NX and MFE. Old KB# 7169#COBOL#netexpress#RMCOBOL#AcuCobol#ServerExpress

Problem: Because changes to your ADIS configuration effect your whole environment how can you have more than one ADIS configuration on the same machine? Resolution: ADISCTRL is the name of the disk file that holds the ADIS configuration and this can be moved from one $COBDIR directory to another.   If you need two different configurations you can have two different ADISCTRL files in two different $COBDIR directories on the same machine and change the value of $COBDIR when you want to change between the two configurations. Old KB# 7189

Problem: Undefined Symbols messages are telling you that your code contains references to entry points which the generator is not able to resolve at link time. As the generator will create direct references to these entry points they need to be resolved at link time. Resolution: The options are: 1. Link in the code which contains the missing entry points into the executable. 2. Tell cob that the entry points will be dynamically loaded at run-time by adding: "-d entrypointname" option to the cob line. 3. Let cob work out they need to be dynamically loaded at run-time by adding "-U" to the cob line. Old KB# 7198

Problem: error 9/253 chk.gnt not found trying to compile through sde Resolution: Change the PATH to $COBDIR/bin:$PATH Old KB# 7185

Problem: Is c-isam a specific or generic file type? Resolution: Release: 2.0   C-isam is a specific proprietary file organization from Informix. Micro Focus products interface with this file type in its elementary version. Old KB# 7155

Problem: When a COBOL application in INT or GNT is executed in a shell from a Visual Basic program, it does not usually get the focus by simply doing the following:      Shell "run MyPgm.gnt" Resolution: Here is the Shell function syntax: processID=Shell(pathname[, windowstyle]) In the scenario involved to run INT or GNT, use vbNormalFocus for windowstyle.     Shell "run adsamp.gnt", vbNormalFocus Old KB# 7153

Problem: Copy members and called subroutines not found after porting source of working Windows Cobol program to Unix. Resolution: Unix treats case as significant in file names.  Use FOLDCOPYNAME and FOLDCALLNAME directives to assist resolution. Old KB# 7157

Problem: How to specify a different ADISCTRL file Resolution: User has two custom  ADISCTRL files with different default configurations. The dd_ADISCTRL  environment variable can be used to point to the appropriate ADISCTRL file Old KB# 7174

Problem: Occurs when "cob" or "cobrun" command is issued to Server Express on a machine which has or had Object Cobol Developer Suite installed. Resolution: There are "cob" and/or "cobrun" triggers from an older version of a Micro Focus  product in a directory which is on PATH ahead of the directory where the current triggers were installed.  Run command "which cob" and "which cobrun" to find and remove unnecessary triggers. Attachments: 10897223.gif Old KB# 7154

Problem: Call x'91' function '69' HP Server Express implementation error, l-attributes Resolution: Not all functions of the  X'91' call are supported on UNIX. Many of the functions available under x'91' on DOS/Windows are not appropriate for UNIX systems This information is from  the Server Express File Handling manual: The only functions supported under Server Express are: x"91" function 46 Enables null insertion x"91" function 47 Disables null insertion x"91" function 48 Enables tab insertion x"91" function 49 Disables tab insertion x"91" function 52 Specifies use of two-byte record terminators x"91" function 53 Specifies use of one-byte record terminators Old KB# 7175

Problem: Why must a person be logged in as root in order to install Server Express? Resolution: When the user is prompted where to install the Server Express product (and could answer any arbitrary directory), the install script must have the power (permissions) to create that directory anywhere on the machine.  The same idea applies to the creation/installation of the "drivers". The install script must be able to create new (or modify existing) license systems, for both development and Application Server licenses.  The license systems must be owned and administered by root, because they are critical (common users must not have permission to disturb them). The install script must be able to modify the system file /etc/inittab, and to create a file in the system directory /etc,  in order to set up the "auto-start at boot time" feature of the License Manager. The files in $COBDIR (the COBOL system files) are

Problem: The Animator is considered to be a COBOL development system utilities.  The solution to this problem is to set COBDATA beginning with a colon. Resolution: The compiler and animator themselves are COBOL programs, and they need to open their own files just as any COBOL program would need to open files, but setting COBDATA interferes with this.   The documentation, in Appendix A of the User's Guide, indicates:         Setting COBDATA affects the compiler and other utilities.  During         compilation, for example, program source is regarded as a data file by the         compiler.  If you intend to use any COBOL development system utilities, we         recommend that the COBDATA value starts with a colon (:). Old KB# 7165

Problem: **    External Compiler Module message **    DB0009 MF DB2 Connect program reported error condition ' 1403'.This **    error prevents SQL processing from continuing - further EXEC SQL **    statements will be ignored. This error is produced when compiling a DB2 program under Server Express on AIX platform. The DB2 database resides on a different server than the one that it is being used to compile. Resolution: When you compile or run a DB2  program using Server Express DB2 compiler directive, it must first connect to the database.  With a local DB2 server, DB2 will attempt to use the logon information you used to logon onto that server if you do not provide ID/PASSWORD.  Generally, this works fine.  However, if the ID/PASSWORD on a remote server is different or non-existent, then the compile will fail with the 1403 error.&n

Problem: High watermark for monitoring Application Server licenses does not seem to be taking effect. Resolution: The high watermark file used to monitor Application Server licenses must be defined in upper case letters in $COBDIR/WATERMARK.  If the file is defined in lower case it is ignored. Old KB# 7205

Problem: Load error 164 on cobdirect.so.2 Resolution: Set COBMODE=64. Old KB# 7176

Problem: /usr/lib/cmplrs/cc/ld: Can't locate file for: -lclntst8 Just upgraded from Oracle 8 to Oracle 9 and trying to compile program with embedded Oracle SQL Resolution: The system loader (ld) is looking for libclntst8.so in $ORACLE_HOME/lib. The client-side library has a different name for each major release of Oracle, i.e. libclntst8.*, libclntst9.*, libclntst10.*. Update the cob command line accordingly for the Oracle client version in use. Old KB# 7210

Problem: Dialog System  screensets are not found or loaded at run time Resolution: In order to use directories other than the directory containing the application program, the user needs to set COBDATA to point to the location containing the screensets - ie Dialog system treats the screenset files as data files to be read when the screenset is initialized. COPYFILES can be placed in other directories and the COBCPY variable is used to point to the locations to be searched by the COBOL compiler and Animator Old KB# 7164

Problem: Message comes from linker (ld) command near end of cob -x or cob -z Resolution: It is not possible to link 32 bit objects to 64 bit code and vice-versa.  Make sure all  dependent modules are compiled under the same COBMODE setting.  Make sure any compiled Cobol code is consistent with any object modules supplied by a third party.   Old KB# 7167

Problem: Cannot load CMDLINE.SAV Resolution: If the COBDATA environment variable is set, this error can be resolved by unsetting COBDATA or adding a colon (:) to the end of the contents of the COBDATA variable. Old KB# 7182

Problem: Using byte stream file handling and cbl_read_file is not returning any data. Return-code = 0 on  the cbl_open_file and receives Return_Code = 0 on the cbl_read_file but no data is received into his input buffer- Resolution: One of the parameters for the cbl_read_file is flags. This parameter can take the following values:           0 Standard read       128 Return the current file size in file-offset Need to make sure after the initial read to obtain the size of the file that the flags is set to 0 to do a standard read. Setting the flags to 0 resolved the no data returned in the input buffer issue. Old KB# 7148

Problem: Sometimes in COBOL applications there is a requirement for pausing execution of an application before continuing.  Most techniques for doing this involve tying up the processor (e.g. performing a large 'perform varying'), to the detriment of other users. Resolution: One method worth trying is to use  call "SYSTEM" and call a UNIX script containing a sleep statement.  e.g. working-storage section. 01 w-call-sleep.     03  filler pic x(7) value "sleep 5".     03  filler  pic x value x"00". procedure division.    ..........     ...........     call "SYSTEM" using w-call-sleep     ............    ............. The parameter for sleep is in whole seconds, and there may be OS discrepancies of up to one second

Problem: Using "cob -x" to rebuild an application that includes some C source code, a customer was getting error "cannot access cc". Resolution: The "cob -x" command, when given C source code (.c) as an argument, invokes the C compiler that comes with the UNIX operating system.  In the case of Solaris, this is the Forte product from Sun.   If the C compiler is not installed, or if the PATH environment variable is set such that the "cc" command cannot be found, then this error appears. The solution is to purchase and install the C compiler, or to update the PATH environment variable so the "cc" command can be found. Old KB# 7203

Problem: When compiling, you get the following error message:           cob32: can not execute CC Resolution: Use the command "which cc" or "which CC" to find out whether there's a "cc" or "CC" command on the path and if found, what directory is it in.  Also try the command "CC -V" or "cc -V" to give you some version information about your C or C compiler (respectively).  If those commands cannot find it, then the "cob" command won't find it either. It is possible that the system has no C (or C compiler) installed, which would obviously cause the "CC" command to fail The least likely, but another possible cause, is that the "CC" (or "cc") command is present in a directory specified on PATH, but the user lacks permission to run it. Old KB# 7163

Problem: How to specify SIGN=EBCDIC in cobopt Resolution: insert line containing: -C sign=ebcdic in the cobopt file using text editor of your choice Old KB# 7159

Problem: Earlier COBOL products for both Wiindows and Unix products contained a family  of Call-by-number routines to read and write characters and attributes to and from the screen. These are not available in Server Express Resolution: A lot of the call-by-number routines were replaced by call-by-name routines many years ago, but the call-by-number routines were kept in the product to assist migration.  They've now been removed entirely.  The replacements for x'B7' and x'B8' are as follows: B7 0 cbl_read_scr_chars B7 1 cbl_write_scr_chars B7 2 cbl_read_scr_attrs B7 3 cbl_write_scr_chars B7 4 cbl_write_scr_n_char B7 5 cbl_write_scr_n_attr B8 0 cbl_read_scr_chattrs B8 1 cbl_write_scr_charrts Refer to the product documentation for full details of how to use these calls. Old KB# 7187