GNU Cobol 2.2 Setup Secrets
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 3:06 am
Some more details on installing can be found here: https://bigdanzblog.wordpress.com/2020/ ... n-windows/
Trying to get GNU COBOL to work on Windows appears to be a bit of a black art
Some time ago these setup instructions where written and obviously at that time they worked since they produced an executable and that executable ran.
I took those earlier instructions and did an update for the latest GNUCobol 2.2. release as described below.
1. Updating the Compiler Binary
On revisiting those instructions I realised the link to the compiler in that setup is outdated, so I went looking for a more recent compiler.
That search took me here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-c ... cobol/2.2/
That page offers these options:
i. Download the source and build the compiler.
ii. Use the link to the nightly build of the compiler.
I took the last option and downloaded the nightly build zip file.
2. Installation
The installation is fairly trivial. Just unzip the file into a folder and make sure the bin folder is in the PATH environment variable.
As I downloaded the 32 bit version so I unzipped the file to this folder location:
This meant that the following folder was defined in the PATH environment variable:
To correctly set the path follow the instructions found here: http://www.zeusedit.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=6176
3. Testing the Compiler
This is where things started to feel a bit like black magic.
From what I can gather the COBOL compiler will basically create a C file and it then uses a C compiler to turn that C code into the final executable.
But this process is not easy to understand as most of the documentation appears to be targeting Linux users
But this is what I have found out so far.
On running the compiler on a simple test.cob file I got this error:
Some where in my searching for an answer I stumbled across this page: http://opencobol.add1tocobol.com/doxy/d ... ts_8h.html
The information from that page suggested running this DOS command might fix the problem:
That did fix the configuration issue but then resulted in this error:
The output clearly shows the COBOL compiler is running the Microsoft compiler but some of the Microsoft compiler details are wrong.
Going back to that earlier page and it is clear there are several other environment variables that need to be set before the compiler will run.
These are all the environment variables I set to get the compiler and linker to run:
With those variables in place an executable was created and it ran just fine 
3. Final Important Details
The things to take from all of this is as follows:
i. On my system I have Visual Studio installed and have is so the cl.exe runs from the command prompt: http://www.zeusedit.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2707
ii. I installed GNU COBOL into the C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\ folder and made sure the bin folder found in that location was in the PATH environment variable.
iii. The environment variables that I set to get the compiler to work matched this install folder location.
So depending on your configuration you might have to tweak these setting to suit.
Cheers Jussi
Trying to get GNU COBOL to work on Windows appears to be a bit of a black art
Some time ago these setup instructions where written and obviously at that time they worked since they produced an executable and that executable ran.
I took those earlier instructions and did an update for the latest GNUCobol 2.2. release as described below.
1. Updating the Compiler Binary
On revisiting those instructions I realised the link to the compiler in that setup is outdated, so I went looking for a more recent compiler.
That search took me here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-c ... cobol/2.2/
That page offers these options:
i. Download the source and build the compiler.
ii. Use the link to the nightly build of the compiler.
I took the last option and downloaded the nightly build zip file.
2. Installation
The installation is fairly trivial. Just unzip the file into a folder and make sure the bin folder is in the PATH environment variable.
As I downloaded the 32 bit version so I unzipped the file to this folder location:
Code: Select all
C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\Code: Select all
C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\bin3. Testing the Compiler
This is where things started to feel a bit like black magic.
From what I can gather the COBOL compiler will basically create a C file and it then uses a C compiler to turn that C code into the final executable.
But this process is not easy to understand as most of the documentation appears to be targeting Linux users
But this is what I have found out so far.
On running the compiler on a simple test.cob file I got this error:
Code: Select all
C:\Temp\>cobc -x -v test.cob
Configuration Error
C:\GNU Cobol 2.0\config\default.conf: No such file or directoryThe information from that page suggested running this DOS command might fix the problem:
Code: Select all
set COB_CONFIG_DIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\configCode: Select all
C:\Temp>cobc -x -v test.cob
Command line: cobc -x -v test.cob
Preprocessing: test.cob -> C:\Users\JUSSIJ~1.DES\AppData\Local\Temp\cob8840_0.cob
...
Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.00.23506 for x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
cob8840_0.c
C:\Temp\cob8840_0.c(14): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'libcob.h': No such file or directoryGoing back to that earlier page and it is clear there are several other environment variables that need to be set before the compiler will run.
These are all the environment variables I set to get the compiler and linker to run:
Code: Select all
set COB_CONFIG_DIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\config
set COB_CFLAGS=-I"C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\include"
set COB_LIBRARY_PATH="/LIBPATH:C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\lib"
set COB_LIBS="C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\lib\libcob.lib"3. Final Important Details
The things to take from all of this is as follows:
i. On my system I have Visual Studio installed and have is so the cl.exe runs from the command prompt: http://www.zeusedit.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=2707
ii. I installed GNU COBOL into the C:\Program Files (x86)\gnucobol-2.2\ folder and made sure the bin folder found in that location was in the PATH environment variable.
iii. The environment variables that I set to get the compiler to work matched this install folder location.
So depending on your configuration you might have to tweak these setting to suit.
Cheers Jussi