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Status Submitted
Workspace COBOL Compilers
Categories z/OS
Created by Guest
Created on Apr 1, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

cob2 should know where its compiler binary is located

See this idea on ideas.ibm.com

Currently, cob2 doesn't know where the COBOL compiler binary is located. Even though it is part of the product, you have to specify SIGYCOMP in the STEPLIB variable. This is confusing and creates a larger entry into using cob2 if this isn't done on your system. Also, it requires systems programmers to - once more - think of a configuration step (i.e., in /etc/profile).

Since cob2 is installed with the COBOL compiler it should know where the binary is located. cob2 is installed into a compiler-specific directory (standard, COBOL 6.4: /usr/lpp/IBM/cobol/igyv6r4/bin/cob2).

In case, STEPLIB isn't set for your system. This doesn't work:

/usr/lpp/IBM/cobol/igyv6r4/bin/cob2 test.cbl

It doesn't print an error message. It - from the user's perspective - does nothing.

One must execute the command like so:

STEPLIB=IGY.V6R4M0.SIGYCOMP /usr/lpp/IBM/cobol/igyv6r4/bin/cob2 test.cbl

This seems counter-intuitive because I have to specify the COBOL version twice (data set name and the USS path).

Idea priority Medium

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