Runtime support for assembler COBOL calls under CICS

The combinations of calls involving COBOL programs and assembler programs and whether the calls are supported when running under Language Environment® under CICS® are listed in the following table.

For the calls that are not supported, Table 1 also lists the symptom (message or abend code) that will be returned in most cases. In some cases, depending on the application environment, the symptom might not occur; you could receive a different failure, or the application might appear to run successfully.

The term IBM COBOL refers to COBOL/370, COBOL for MVS™ & VM, and COBOL for OS/390® & VM.

Table 1. Language Environment supported calls between COBOL programs and assembler programs that run under CICS; Yes indicates that a call is supported.
Calls from Issued to
Call type Program issuing Enterprise COBOL IBM COBOL VS COBOL II LanEnv1 Asm2 main LanEnv1 Asm subrtn Non-LanEnv Asm
Static Enterprise COBOL Yes Yes Yes No3 Yes Yes
IBM COBOL Yes Yes Yes No3 No4 Yes
VS COBOL II Yes Yes Yes No3 No4 Yes
Dynamic Enterprise COBOL Yes Yes Yes No3 Yes Yes
IBM COBOL Yes Yes Yes No3 Yes Yes
VS COBOL II Yes Yes Yes No3 Yes Yes
EXEC CICS LINK Enterprise COBOL Yes Yes Yes No3 No4 Yes
IBM COBOL Yes Yes Yes No3 No4 Yes
VS COBOL II Yes Yes Yes No3 No4 Yes
VCON Asm (LanEnv) Yes Yes No4 No3 Yes Yes
Asm (non-LanEnv) No4 No4 No4 No3 No4 Yes
EXEC CICS LINK Asm (non-LanEnv) Yes Yes Yes No3 No4 Yes
Asm (non-LanEnv) Yes Yes Yes No3 No4 Yes

The failure symptoms described in these notes are as they would occur when the Language Environment TRAP(ON) and ABTERMENC(ABEND) runtime options are in effect.

  1. (LanEnv stands for Language Environment.) CEEENTRY macro with MAIN=YES creates a Language Environment assembler main. If you specify MAIN=NO on the CEEENTRY macro, a Language Environment assembler subroutine is created. The default is MAIN=YES.
  2. (Asm stands for assembler.)
  3. There is no support for Language Environment-conforming assembler main programs under CICS at a level earlier than CICS TS Version 3. Failure symptom: Unpredictable. The applications might appear to run successfully.
  4. Failure symptom of: ASRA abend (caused by type 1 or 5 program check).