Using Character Animator to Debug Native COBOL Applications Running in Containers

This topic describes how you can use Character Animator to debug a native COBOL application running in a container.

Note:
  • Micro Focus does not recommend the use of Character Animator in Visual COBOL because the Eclipse IDE provides an excellent environment in which to debug your applications. In certain circumstances, however, Character Animator can still provide useful functionality, so if you are familiar with using Animator you might want to continue to use it in such circumstances.

To use Character Animator to debug a COBOL application running in a container:

  1. Run a Visual COBOL image and start a bash shell in it. You can use a command such as the following to do this:
    docker run -it --cap-add=SYS_PTRACE microfocus/vcdevhub:sles12sp4_7.0_x64 /bin/bash

    or:

    podman run -it --cap-add=SYS_PTRACE microfocus/vcdevhub:sles12sp4_7.0_x64 /bin/bash
    Note:
    • On Red Hat Linux the name of the image to run would be microfocus/vcdevhub:rhel7_7.0_x64.
  2. Compile the program that you want to debug:
    cob -a prog-name.cbl
  3. Animate the program:
    anim prog-name.int