PI59354: SUPPORT DYNAMIC STORAGE IN COBOL (PIC X(1) LINKAGE SECTION ITEMS WITH REFERENCE MODIFICATION AND TABLE ODO OVERLAYS)

APAR status

• Closed as duplicate of another APAR.

Error description

• In earlier versions of COBOL, customer source frequently
  handled dynamically sized pieces of storage by using a PIC X(1)
  linkage section data-item and then reading or writing beyond
  the bounds of that array.  This APAR will add this type of
  support to COBOL V5 to make the behavior consistent with COBOL
  V4.
  
  LINKAGE Example:
  
  WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
  01  wrk-len                 PIC s9(08) binary.
  LINKAGE SECTION.
  01  L-String1               PIC X(1).
  01  L-String2               PIC X(1).
  PROCEDURE DIVISION.
  0000-MAIN.
      MOVE 1000 TO wrk-len
      MOVE L-String1(1:wrk-len) TO L-String2(1:wrk-len)
  
  Behavior difference:  COBOL V4 moves 1000 bytes.  COBOL V5
  moves 232 bytes due to differing instructions.
  
  TABLE ODO Example:
  WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
  01  CONTROLVAR PIC 9(5) BINARY.
  01  MYCONTAINER.
      02  MYTABLE.
          03 TBL OCCURS 0 TO 1 TIMES DEPENDING ON CONTROLVAR.
             05 MYFIELD PIC X(1).
      02 DUMMY PIC X(300).
  PROCEDURE DIVISION.
      MOVE 1 TO CONTROLVAR
      MOVE ALL 'Z' TO DUMMY
      DISPLAY DUMMY          <= Contains all Z's
      MOVE 300 TO CONTROLVAR
      MOVE ALL 'M' TO MYTABLE <= MYTABLE has 1 byte of M's in V4
      DISPLAY MYTABLE
      MOVE 1 TO CONTROLVAR
      DISPLAY DUMMY   <= DUMMY HAS 299 BYTES OF M's in V4.
  
  Behavior difference:  COBOL V4 overlays storage following
  MYTABLE exactly as expected byte for byte.  COBOL V5 handles
  the overlay differently such that the storage results differ
  from COBOL V4.
  

Local fix

Problem summary

Problem conclusion

Temporary fix

Comments

•  duplicate of APAR PI59330
  

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

  PI57812

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

Applicable component levels