Runtime message traceback information

In Rational® Developer for System z® Version 7.6, COBOL for Windows® is enhanced to provide traceback information for some runtime messages. If traceback information is available for a given message, additional lines of information appear after the message text.

To include the source-file name and line number in the traceback information, you must compile a COBOL program with the -g flag. For example:

cob2 -g FNREM01.CBL

results in the source-file name FNREM01.CBL and a line number 1839 from the source file appearing in the traceback information for message IWZ036W:

IWZ036W  Truncation of high order digit positions occurred in program FNREM01
         on line number 1967.
      iwzrlib.dll : 0
      FNREM01.CBL : 1839
      iwzrlib.dll : 0
      iwzrwin1.obj : 0
      kernel32.dll : 0

Note: The line number in the traceback information (1839) references the relevant line from the source file (FNREM01.CBL), and the line number specified in the message text (1967) references the LineID from the source listing (FNREM01.lst).

If you compile a COBOL program without the -g flag, you will see an executable-file name and zero for the line number. For example:

cob2 FNREM01.CBL

results in the executable-file name FNREM01.exe and a line number 0 appearing in the traceback information for message IWZ036W:

IWZ036W  Truncation of high order digit positions occurred in program FNREM01
         on line number 1967.
      iwzrlib.dll : 0
      FNREM01.exe : 0
      iwzrlib.dll : 0
      iwzrwin1.obj : 0
      kernel32.dll : 0

Traceback information is directed to stderr.

COBOL for Windows Programming Guide content will be updated at a future release to indicate these changes.