Running COBOL programs under z/OS UNIX

COBOL programs are supported under z/OS® UNIX.

In order to use COBOL under z/OS UNIX, the COBOL programs must be compiled with the Enterprise COBOL for z/OS compiler, COBOL for OS/390 & VM compiler or the COBOL for MVS & VM compiler, and the programs must be compiled with the RENT compiler option.

You can compile and link edit your COBOL programs in the z/OS UNIX shell with the cob2 command. The cob2 command is available with COBOL for OS/390 & VM V2R2 or Enterprise COBOL for z/OS.

Alternatively, you can compile your programs in TSO or batch and have the object module written to a z/OS UNIX file by using the PATH parameter instead of the DSNAME parameter for the SYSLIN DD. Once you have your object modules in a z/OS UNIX file, you can use the c89 utility to create an executable file.

When you want to use COBOL programs under z/OS UNIX, be aware of the following situations:

• When COBOL is the main routine of a z/OS UNIX, process, parameters are not passed in the C argv and argc format. Instead the parameter list consists of three parameters passed by reference:
  1. Argument-count: a binary fullword integer containing the number of elements in each of the arrays that are passed as the second and third parameters.
  2. Argument-length-list: an array of pointers. The Nth entry in the array is the address of a fullword binary integer containing the length of the Nth entry in the Argument-list (the third argument).
  3. Argument-list: an array of pointers. The Nth entry in the array is the address of the Nth character string passed as an argument on the spawn(), exec(), or command invocation.
  COBOL programs are not recommended as main programs because they are not portable to other platforms. Instead, use a C main routine and have it call the COBOL programs.
• DISPLAY UPON SYSOUT data is written to stdout unless a DD is allocated that matches the value in the OUTDD compiler option.
• In order to run COBOL programs in more than one thread, all of the COBOL programs have to be compiled with the Enterprise COBOL compiler using the THREAD compiler option.
• The COBOL SORT and MERGE statements are not supported.

For more information about compiling, link-editing, and running COBOL programs in a z/OS UNIX shell environment, see the appropriate version of the programming guide in the COBOL library at Enterprise COBOL for z/OS library.