Visual COBOL uses an Apache Ant script,
.cobolBuild, to build COBOL projects. This script is automatically generated from the
.cobolProj project file.
Existing external build scripts such as makefiles, msbuild, shell scripts and others can build COBOL applications using
.cobolBuild as an Ant build file.
If you use an Ant file from a project developed on a remote machine using the
Micro Focus Visual COBOL Development Hub, the application is built on the machine running Ant.
- From a
Windows
command prompt:
-
ant -lib %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Micro Focus\Visual COBOL\bin\mfant.jar -f .cobolBuild
- From a
UNIX
command prompt:
-
ant -lib $COBDIR/lib/mfant.jar -f .cobolBuild
- From the Eclipse IDE
-
- Choose
Window > Preferences > Run/Debug > Launching and clear the
Build (if required) before launching option if you don't want to trigger an Eclipse build before each ant build.
- Right-click the
.cobolBuild file and select
Run As > Ant Build.
You can set your own shell scripts as pre-build and post-build events and they will execute as part of the
.cobolBuild Ant script before or after compiling.
To set pre-build and post-build events:
- Right-click on your project in the COBOL Explorer view and select
Properties.
- Expand
Micro Focus > Build Configurations and click
Events for the desired configuration.
- Type the code of the script in the
Pre-build event command line field or
Post-build event command line field.
- Click
Apply and then
OK.
Note:
If you reference variables within
Events, you must prefix any linked resource path variables with
${pathVar. and terminate the variable with
}, for example - you must code
PROJECT_LOC as
${pathVar.PROJECT_LOC}. Linked resource path variables are defined on the project properties page. Right-click your project, and then click
Properties > Resource > Linked Resources. The variables are listed on the
Path Variables tab.
