Frequently Asked Questions
What is required for deployment in Windows?
Q
On Windows, there is not a runtime-only package. What should be distributed at Customer sites?
A.
For starters, all of the files your Customer requires are in the bin directory. All of the DLL’s in the bin directory should be distributed. They must be in the PATH when the COBOL program is run.
If you wish to save some space, you may remove:
citmake.exe makefile utility. Used by the Developer Studio
cobmf.exe Translates some MF compiler commands into COBOL-IT compiler commands.
Mixing software versions creates problems
Q
Can you install a update a development system installation with a later version of a runtime version of the software?
A
No. The runtime only version of the software is for deployment only. It can not be used to to update an installed version of a development system. In order to perform a version update, you must uninstall/erase the previous version, and reinstall a full version of the new version. Mixing versions results in unpredictable behavior.
Compilation Fails: cannot find -lncurses
Q
I installed the COBOL-IT Compiler Suite on a Linux Redhat platform. When I try to compile a simple COBOL program, I get the following message:
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find –lncurses
What should I do?
A
You must install the ncurses development tools. On Redhat/CentOS, the command is:
>yum install ncurses devel
If you are on a 64-bit Linux machine, and using the 32-bit COBOL-IT compiler, you must install the 32-bit version of the ncurses development tools. On Redhat/CentOS, the command is:
>yum install ncurses-devel.i386
Unexpected behavior when two compiler versions are installed
Q
I have two different versions of COBOL-IT installed. An older version is installed in the default directory (/opt/cobol-it). A newer version is installed in another directory (/usr/myhome/cobol-it).
I would like to switch between the two by changing the value of the COBOLITDIR environment variable.
By changing COBOLITDIR, I can invoke the newer version of the compiler installed in the my home/cobol-it directory. However the compilation fails because the newer compiler invokes libraries in the older installation, and I get a version error. What should I do?
A
This is a known limitation. Linux first looks into the default defined at compilation time. When you want to use 2 different versions of the COBOL IT compiler on a system, the best solution is to install them in directories other than the default directory. It is best to not create the default directory in that situation.