Copybook paths in Server Express Remote Development Option

[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 23 January 2012]

Hi,
I'm using the Server Express Remote Development Option and have a question configuring where to find the copybooks when parsing my programs. In the documentation it says that I should create copybook paths outside the project as linked resources. But the project settings (COBOL Remote Project) do not allow to create linked ressources.

Does anyone has a clue why I cannot create linked ressources? Or how can I tell the parser where to find the copybooks outside the project?

Thanks,
Sebastian

Hi Sebastian,
The short answer is that you have stumbled upon a restriction in the implementation we have for the Remote Option in the IDE. Currently we do not allow linked resources to be used in a remote project - the documentation in this case is incorrect. There's not much else I can say other than 'Sorry!'

However, there is a workaround which you may be interested in. Linked resources within Eclipse are basically treated as symbolic links to the physical location of the files. You can replicate this on your Linux/Unix Hub machine by creating a symbolic link(s) to the directory where your common copybooks exist. This needs to be created underneath the parent directory which contains your project. As the copybooks would then exist in a subordinate directory, they will available at compile/debug time for you to be able to use.

Let me give you an example...
Suppose you have created your remote project on the Unix/Linux Hub machine in the /usr/staff/fred/workspace/myproj directory and that your common copybooks are located in /usr/source/common/copylib.
If you type the following:
cd /usr/staff/fred/workspace/myproj
ln -s mycommon /usr/source/common/copylib
you will create a symbolic link from the new sub directory (called mycommon and existing in the /usr/staff/fred/workspace/myproj directory) ready for use in your Eclipse project. Obviously you'd need to create a symbolic link from each project you want to use those common files.

Hope that helps you and let's you share the common files between projects.

Regards,
Darren Self
Product Owner - Eclipse IDE

[Migrated content. Thread originally posted on 23 January 2012]

Hi,
I'm using the Server Express Remote Development Option and have a question configuring where to find the copybooks when parsing my programs. In the documentation it says that I should create copybook paths outside the project as linked resources. But the project settings (COBOL Remote Project) do not allow to create linked ressources.

Does anyone has a clue why I cannot create linked ressources? Or how can I tell the parser where to find the copybooks outside the project?

Thanks,
Sebastian

Hi Darren,
thanks for your answer. I tried that already yesterday with linking the paths into the eclipse project directory. Unfortunately, the performance of Eclipse gets so bad, because of thousands of copybooks located in that directory so that Eclipse is not usable any more...
So there is no other possibility? I just need that for parsing (and maybe debugging). Compiling the source-files is done another way.
I tried that with Visual Cobol for Eclipse and there I can set my environment variable COBCPY (and maybe a linked ressource) to a location where copybooks are located and it worked pretty well.