You normally configure your run-time system using a project's properties in the IDE. However, some run-time behavior cannot be configured using the IDE; this must be configured using run-time tunables, which are stored in a run-time configuration file.
These run-time IDE settings can be saved in a file called <configuration name>.gcf which may be created automatically when a project is built.
When your run-time system or linked executable starts up, it attempts to read the run-time configuration file. The run-time configuration file specifies values for the run-time tunables.
If a setting specified in the IDE conflicts with a setting in the configuration file, the setting specified in the IDE takes precedence.
If you use the Interface Mapping Toolkit to generate COBOL services for execution in Enterprise Server, you can specify settings for some tunables for the application container, a version of the run-time system used in Enterprise Server. If a setting specified by the Interface Mapping Toolkit conflicts with a setting in the configuration file, the setting specified in the Interface Mapping Toolkit always takes precedence.
The run-time configuration file is shared by all users of the run-time system.
For native COBOL, you create or edit the run-time configuration file with a text editor, and then specify the location and name of the run-time configuration file using the COBCONFIG_ environment variable.
For example, if you want to use a configuration file called myconf.cfg , you set COBCONFIG_ as follows.
set COBCONFIG_=e:\mydir\myconf.cfg