To override one or more directives, create a flat system-wide directives file named cobol.dir, and list the directives in the file: specify each directive either on a separate line, or on the same line, delimited by a space, colon or semicolon. Place cobol.dir in the etc sub-directory of the location specified by the COBDIR environment variable.
The Compiler automatically processes the directives in the system-wide directives file. Firstly, it looks for a cobol.dir file in the current directory, and then in the $COBDIR/etc directory.
Compilation terminates if the Compiler rejects a directive specified on the command line or in a directives file. Therefore, whenever you create or change a cobol.dir file, run a trial compilation and watch for "Rejected" messages at the beginning when the directives are processed.