Rocket® Net Express/Server Express

Problem: A customer had an application written in C and distributed on HP/UX PA-RISC platforms as shared libraries.  This application could be invoked from either C or COBOL by linking the libraries to a C or COBOL main program.  The libraries themselves depended on other libraries, and were originally built with -L and -l specifying the dependant libraries.  The 32-bit linker in HP/UX PA-RISC remembers -L locations as absolute paths, so at runtime the dependant libraries could be found even if SHLIB_PATH did not include their location.  Here is an example: Cmain or COBmain calls sub1 which calls sub2: > cat Cmain.c int main(int argc, char **argv) {     sub1(); } > cat COBmain.cbl         CALL "sub1". > cat sub1.c int sub1(){     disp_hello();     return(0); } > cat hide/sub2.c int disp_he

Problem: Compiling a program and/or running cob -V from the command line, and getting an error similar to the following: cob32: invalid symbol __iob in sidefile /opt/cobol/lib/cobisym                                                                           Resolution: Make certain your $PATH environment variable is set correctly. Old KB# 4549

Problem: The RTS error on failure is one which may be caused by an environment variable setting problem, e.g. 173, 211, 114, etc.  How to check the environment while running in CGI mode and compare it to the command line environment? Resolution: One good way to compare environments is to run the mfsupport utility from the successful command line environment and from the cgi environment.  A comparison of the environment sections of both output files may reveal the problem.  However, it is not simple to run mfsupport in the cgi environment. To do the latter, write a small cgi program which contains the following fragments:       01  mfsupport-command-line.             10  mfsupport-command pic x(200) value 'mfsupport > /dev/null 2>&1'.            &

Problem: A customer migrating from the mainframe found that some of his programs were failing with the above error during execution. This was due to PERFORM VARYING statements where the subscript either started at zero, or went past the highest value in a table (e.g. went to 11 when the OCCURS was 10). Whilst he appreciated that such programming practices might be considered unsatisfactory, it was important that the programs should run, unmodified, on the new UNIX platform. Resolution: The compiler directive NOBOUND stops the automatic checking of subscripts at runtime (the default is BOUND). If you are building to generated code, you should also look at the NOBOUNDOPT directve, though using this may impact performance. Old KB# 4538

Problem: After applying a fix patch to Server Express 4.0 SP2 a customer noticed a difference between the COMPUTE statement in that it correctly calculates an int file but gave the wrong results in a gnt file. Resolution: After setting the Compiler directive HOSTARITHMETIC the desired results were achieved. There is a KB article about HOSTARITHMETIC as new compiler directive: (KB 19918) which is recommended to read as it contains detailed information to this compiler directive. Old KB# 4512

Problem: When moving a source that contains special characters from a different platform (i.e. Windows, HP...) to Linux you may find that you get compilation errors in those lines. For example the following code:        working-storage section.         01  m2          pic x(02) value "m²".        PROCEDURE DIVISION. (where the characters in the non-numeric literal are U 006D and U 00B2) could produce the following compilation error:     14  working-storage section.     15  01  m2          pic x(02) value "mý".     16 *1004-E****************************************************************(   0)** ** &

Problem: How does the Dialog export command help me as a developer? Resolution: The export command allows a developer to dump every detail about a dialog screenset.  This both helps with debugging and also re-coding. Alt/F10 brings up the export option where a filename.txt file can be designated for output. Pressing the SPACE bar allows you to toggle which components are selected Components Screenset Dets Data Block Error Messages Validations Global Dialog Panels This is followed by a list of panels which can be de-selected by use of SPACE.  For debugging, one is usually only interested in a subset of panels. The resultant output is a text file containing every detail of the selected components.  This is part of the Global Dialog setion. GLOBAL DIALOG       CASE-SENSITIVITY ON         EK F1   [RETC   ] &nb

Problem: Is there a place in a .int file where it shows the compiler directives used? Resolution: There is no direct way to retrieve directives from a .int file.  If the .int was compiled with a listing output (.lst file) and the SETTINGS directive was used, the .lst file will contain the directives.  The time stamps (ls -l) on the .lst and .int files will be identical or very close in time.  That permits the user to infer the directive settings shown in the .lst file were the ones used to compile the .int. Example: cd cp $COBDIR/demo/tictac/tictac.cbl ./ cob -P tictac.cbl -C SETTINGS ls -l tictac.* -rw-r--r--  1 username usergrp    8739 2006-08-09 15:05 tictac.cbl -rw-r--r--  1 username usergrp  51968 2006-08-09 15:06 tictac.idy -rw-r--r--  1 username usergrp    3840 2006-08-09 15:06 tictac.int -rw-r--r--  1 username usergrp&n

Problem: Load error : file '$JAVA$CallVendorServices' error code: 198, pc=93, call=1, seg=0 198          Load failure Resolution: If your Environment Settings are correct, test this by trying to make a direct call to your Java application. You need to run this as a multithreaded application by using the cobjrun. Old KB# 4530

Problem: Which compiler flag should I use in order to have the objects to be created in a directory other than the current one? Resolution: Use the -Ngnt flag then specify the file location for the output file. cob -u -Ngnt="/tmp/testxx/tictac.gnt" tictac.cbl This example causes tictac.gnt file to be written to the /tmp/testxx directory. Old KB# 4522

Problem: If the database connection criteria is being passed to Pro*COBOL via a compiler directive, is there a way to prevent this from being displayed on the console? Note the line: * CSQL-I-005: Passing userid=abcd/wxyz@INST1 to ORACLE Precompiler in the output of a compilation of an Oracle COBOL program.. Resolution: These messages are actually coming from the COBSQL portion of the COBOL compiler * CSQL-I-005: Passing userid=abcd/wxyz@INST1 to ORACLE Precompiler This message is only displayed if the CONFIRM directive is set. Removing the CONFIRM directive should resolve the problem. Old KB# 4517

Problem: An application moved cursor focus to a group field when pressing a specific key.  i.e. to the index 9  in an array of 12.   This apparently worked OK on a pre 4.0 version of OCDS but not on Server Express. Resolution: The dialog (local code associated with a panel) pertaining to the group field TOGGLE is shown below.  This is the field to jump to when pressing END (that doesn't work).  It's a 12 member array of 7 bytes, the application jumps to index 9.       PANEL GROUP PRE-GRP VERTICAL           LINE 13 COLUMN 59 HEIGHT 9 WIDTH 7           TYPE DATA ACC-EXIT BAR           SELECT BAR               LENGTH 7      &n

Problem: The following message is displayed : << *** This script must not be run from     inside the product directory. exiting ... >> Resolution: To install a fixpack , it is necessary to create a temporary directory. This directory must not be $COBDIR and, also, must not be a subdirectory of $COBDIR. Old KB# 4529

Problem: A particular application allocates memory dynamically.  The only access to the data is via a pointer in working-storage.  There is no direct way to inspect the data values at the dynamic location. Resolution: Following is a small Cobol program which illustrates the solution.           data division.         working-storage section.        * Data to be inspected -- statically allocated to simplify the demo, but        * referenced only by a pointer.           01 data-of-interest  pic  x(50) value 'This is interesting data.'.           01 pointer-to-interest   pointer.           

Problem: When trying to run a Unix script that invokes a Cobol program, it runs fine when manually running it from the shell. So you are able to run the script as the user from a menu. However, when running the script from a cron as the same user it won't work - the error "could not obtain latest contract from popen(3C): No such process" appears. Resolution: The problem here was the "popen" error message seemed to be a generic error message. This particular program had "display" in it - running it in the cron caused the above "popen" error - when commented the displays out the error no longer appeared. It was identified as a Solaris error and they can provide a fix for this. Old KB# 4526

Problem: A customer had a script called (say) ggg, and a program (say) ggg.cbl. The script was in a directory pointed at by PATH, and the program was in a directory pointed at by COBPATH. If he typed 'anim ggg', then Animator picked up the script, rather than the program. Why was this? Resolution: Animator can debug .int, .gnt, .so, executables, core files and running processes.  So when you type      anim nnn the animator will first check to see if 'nnn' is number and, if so, see if it can dynamically attach to a process with that pid.  Next, it will search for exes, down $PATH.  It that fails, it will search using the standard RTS rules (using $COBPATH and the program_search_order tunable, etc).  Finally, it checks to see if it's been asked to debug a core file. In this case, as a script is an executable, it was be picked up first. The ideal solution is not to have s

Problem: When compiling an executable on SCO v6.0.0, with Server Express v4.0, the above error is displayed. Resolution: The full library name is libintl.so and is the library that provides Native Language Support.  On SCO 6, it is found in /usr/gnu/lib, which when added to the PATH corrects the problem Old KB# 4492

Problem: I can't run the XML tutorial . Cob2xml command can't create files and displays errors about undefined functions . Resolution: Server Express 5.0 is validated with the version 7 of the C compiler . It is necessary to install this version. To verify the version : Login : root lslpp -L vac.C   must display the line : vac.C   7.0.0.0 Old KB# 4562

Problem: Release 4.0: /usr/lib/libc unable to find socket.lib install error check disk space permissions and try again Resolution: If you get this message during the installation of Server Express 4, please make sure that the gcc is installed on your system. Old KB# 4550

Problem: Customer has an IBM AIX machine with MQ Series. Request for help, linking MQ Series for AIX with Server Express. Resolution: Kb article 17817 talks about creating stand-alone programs and shared objects which include the MQ libraries.  With a little adaptation it is possible to build an RTS that includes MQ support.  The way to do this is as follows: 1. Create an 'export' file to make the MQ series entry point visible.  This should include all of the MQ entry points used by your application. Example: echo "MQCONN" >mq.exp echo "MQOPEN" >> mq.exp echo "MQCLOSE" >> mq.exp echo "MQGET" >> mq.exp echo "MQCMIT" >> mq.exp echo "MQPUT" >> mq.exp echo "MQDISC" >> mq.exp 2.  Create the run-time using the following cob command: cob -xto newrts -e"" -Q -bE:mq.exp -lmqmcb_r

Problem: Customer compiles via a script and would like to interpret the codes returned by 'cob' so they can act on a failure.  The example below fails with Error "1007-E"  and returns 12 ($?) 01 x pic x(2) value "xxxx". procedure division. display 'xx=' xx. stop run. script.sh cob -v -C WARNING=1 $1 rc=$? echo RC=$rc Resolution: The return value from the checker depends upon the most serious error returned. Fatal (aka unrecoverable) errors are 16, severe 12, error is 8, warnings are 4 and info is 2. No messages gives 0. The checker directives change-message, info-return and warning are relevant. If the checker returns a value >= a threshold value, set by cob -W and defaulting to 12 (SEVERE), then cob stops and returns this value. Otherwise cob proceeds with the next compilation/generation/link, or returns 0 if there is no more work. If the ncg returns any non-zero status then cob ret

Problem: I have migrated my screenset from Windows onto RedHat Linux, and it doesn't display correctly, but it looks fine on AIX.  What is the problem? Resolution: The problem was that the customer was using the LANG default of en_US.UTF-8.  Unfortunately, character-based Dialog System does not support Unicode, so the colours are displayed incorrectly.  Changing the LANG setting to en_US enabled the screen to display correctly. Old KB# 4500

Problem: How do you use the h2cpy utility to convert pstat.h to pstat.cpy Output is not aligned correctly with 64 bit application using the following command to create: h2cpy /usr/include/sys/pstat.h -I /usr/include -e lp64 h2cpy /usr/include/sys/pstat.h -I /usr/include -e ilp64 Resolution: The pstat_ functions is used to obtain system and process information. Create  pstat.cpy with the following command: h2cpy /usr/include/sys/pstat.h -I /usr/include -D_PSTAT64 It will create pstat.cpy with the following: 01  pst-status        is typedef.         02 pst-idx           usage l-long.         02 pst-uid           usage l-long.         02 pst-pid   &n

Problem: A customer wanted to know how comptible .int code really was: for example, could he take an .int file compiled as 64-bit on net Express 5.0, and then run it on a UNIX box? Also, would this have to be a 64-bit UNIX system? Resolution: A 64-bit .int built on Net Express will run on a 32- or a 64-bit UNIX box. Old KB# 4560

Problem: Cobol program's being animated using COBSW= A set will not start up in the animator, but will just execute. Resolution: This problem can be caused by the environment variable DISPLAY being set. When the DISPLAY environment variable is set the Server Express product will try to create a new X-Term window for the Animator screen and user interface. If the user is not using an X-Windows session, this operation fails and the Animator screen is never displayed. Ensure that the environment varaible DISPLAY is not set. If DISPLAY is set, unset and then animate. example: echo $DISPLAY DISPLAY="information" unset DISPLAY Old KB# 4516