Problem:

A circumstance may occur when COBOL programs can be invoked successfully from the command line with no error, but cannot be invoked via a script.  The following error might appear when the script is run:

   "cobol version number invalid, call tech support"

Resolution:

In such a circumstance, check that the script is setting environment variables correctly.  This error is known to occur when the COBDIR, PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, SHLIB_PATH, or LIBPATH environment variables are set to conflicting or incorrect values.

See Knowledgebase articles 21774 and 18615 for information about setting these environment variables.

In some circumstances, COBDIR might be set correctly, but the library environment variable (example, LD_LIBRARY_PATH) might be set to include the "lib" subdirectory of an entirely different COBDIR.  This will cause the "cobol version number invalid" error.

In other circumstances COBDIR might be set to a directory that does not actually contain an installation of Server Express, for example it might mistakenly be set the "bin" subdirectory instead of the parent directory; such a setting is also known to cause the error message.