Problem:

It is easy to fully path to a file or files in the SELECT statement however this doesn't allow the root directory path to be changed at runtime without rewriting the application.

Resolution:

By using the RUNPATH environment variable and the RUN-FILES-ATTR EXPANDED-PATH-SEARCH configuration option allows for a more flexible solution.   For example, if you wanted to open the following files :

/home/trpos/2012/FILE.DAT

/home/trpos/2013/FILE.DAT

Instead of fully pathing to them in the SELECT statement like this :

SELECT DOSYA ASSIGN TO RANDOM "/home/trpos/2012/FILE.DAT"

SELECT DOSYB ASSIGN TO RANDOM "/home/trpos/2013/FILE.DAT"

You could assign them like this :

SELECT DOSYA ASSIGN TO RANDOM "2012/FILE.DAT"

SELECT DOSYB ASSIGN TO RANDOM "2013/FILE.DAT"

NB:  Note the lack of a leading /

Then set the RUNPATH environment variable to :

/home/trpos

This instructs the runtime to start it's file search path in the /home/trpos directory.  Create a configuration file (simple text file for example called "c.cfg") containing the following :

RUN-FILES-ATTR EXPANDED-PATH-SEARCH=YES

Then run using the command line :

runcobol <program> c=c.cfg

The configuration file will instruct the runtime to look in all the RUNPATH locations appending the path/filename in SELECT statement.