The Compiler searches for directives in the following sequence of locations:

1.  COBOL system default directives in the file cobol.dir.  The system will look for this file first in the current directory, then in $COBDIR

2.  System default directives contained in cob options in the file $COBDIR/etc/cobopt

3.  User default directives contained in cob options in the environment variable COBOPT

4.  Compile-time directives contained in cob options on the cob command line
     (to use this method, the syntax is “cob –C directive”)

5.  Program-specific directives in $SET statements in the source code file of each program.

You can further customize the Compiler's behavior by creating your own directives file.  You can specify the DIRECTIVES on the command line, in a $SET statement, in the cobol.dir file or in the $COBDIR/etc/cobopt file.

         DIRECTIVES  “filename.dir”

For an alphabetical listing of directives, go to:

         http://supportline.microfocus.com/Documentation/books/sx51ws02/sx51indx.htm

Click on Compiler Directives > Compiler Directives - Alphabetical Listing

There is an extensive amount of documentation about the compiler available in the Server Express Bookshelf, the above link is a part of that documentation.