Hello @wgherm,

Welcome to the Micro Focus Community Site. Below, I have a few questions to help learn more about your issue.

• Micro Focus provides a script cobsetenv to set the minimum environment for running the product. You might try running the program again after first sourcing this script to make sure the minimum environment has been set. The following example has a space after the period character:

. $COBDIR/bin/cobsetenv

myexecutable

• You've mentioned using COBOL Server 7.0 Patch Update 4. What version of Visual COBOL Development Hub was used to compile the failing COBOL program?

• If available, does the same error occur on a server running Visual COBOL Development Hub 7.0 Patch Update 4?

• It may help to see more context with the error message. Can you post the full error message with a few lines above it, for context?

• What type of compiled module is your COBOL program built to? Is it an .int, or .gnt, or .so, or native executable file? If this is a .so or native executable, can you provide the output of the "ldd" command run against the compiled module? For example:

ldd myexecutable

Blair

Load error : file '_EXTNAME'
error code: 173, pc=6B5, call=1, seg=0
173 Called program file not found in drive/directory

cobol@zzz4:/usr/zup/pgm/03/an$ ldd z03an001.int
not a dynamic executable

INT is built with a windows Compiler, patchlevel 0 or 1. Dev Hub on Ubuntu is not installed (but on V6)

Thanks for your response.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to reproduce the error you described. I've tested with a pair of small programs which include both external files and external variables. The programs were compiled to .int on Windows with Visual COBOL 6.0, and then run on Ubuntu using COBOL Server 7.0 Patch Update 4. I'll provide the source for these programs below. Please try them in your environment and let me know if they run without error.

mainprog.cbl

       identification division.

       program-id. mainprog.

           select test-file assign to "testfile.txt"

                            organization is line sequential

                            file status is file-status.

       data division.

       fd test-file external.

       01 test-record pic x(20).

       working-storage section.

       01 file-status pic x(2) is external.

       01 ext-item    pic x(10) is external.

       procedure division.

           move "mainprog" to ext-item

           open output test-file

           if file-status = "00"

               display "open OK"

           else

               display "open failed = " file-status

           end-if

           move all "1" to test-record

           write test-record

           if file-status = "00"

               display "write OK"

           else

               display "write failed = " file-status

           end-if

           call "subprog"

           display "return from subprog"

           display "ext-item = " ext-item

           read test-file

           if file-status = "00"

               display "read OK - rec = " test-record

           else

               display "read failed = " file-status

           end-if

           close test-file     

           goback.

       end program mainprog.

Subprog.cbl

       identification division.

       program-id. subprog.

           select test-file assign to "testfile.txt"

                            organization is line sequential

                            file status is file-status.

       data division.

       fd test-file external.

       01 test-record pic x(20).

       working-storage section.

       01 file-status pic x(2) is external.

       01 ext-item    pic x(10) is external.

       procedure division.

           display "in subprog"

           display "ext-item = " ext-item

           move "subprog" to ext-item

           move all "2" to test-record

           write test-record

           if file-status = "00"

               display "write OK"

           else

               display "write failed = " file-status

           end-if

           close test-file

           open input test-file

           if file-status = "00"

               display "open OK"

           else

               display "open failed = " file-status

           end-if

           goback.

If these programs do not reproduce the problem, feel free to modify them so that they reproduce the issue you've described.

I've found it. My program uses "_EXTNAME" to read value from environment variable

556 CALL "_EXTNAME" USING USRNAME2-FILE-SET USRNAME-FILE-LOC
557 CANCEL "_EXTNAME"

maybe, this is the better way:

display "USERNAME" upon environment-name 
accept val from environment-value

Can you please clarify if the problem is now solved or it is still occurring even if program _EXTNAME exists?

code is changed, problem is solved. 

Just fyi,

_EXTNAME is not a program, it is an entry point in the COBOL run-time system on Windows that exists purely for compatibility with old products, probably predating the syntax for handling environment variables that the code has been changed to use. I don't think that it was ever in Unix/Linux products and is no longer documented so the change that you have made is correct.