Run-time Launch Configuration Files

Use a run-time launch configuration file to ensure an application can be launched when it is deployed in a separate location to the run-time system (in the case of dynamically bound applications), or when the licensing daemon is not already running.

You can use a run-time launch configuration file to configure certain aspects of application initialization for these deployment scenarios:

• A dynamically-bound application in which the COBOL Server run-time files have been included directly within the application, and where there is a requirement to keep these files in a separate directory to the application executables that use them.
• An application that is run on a machine on which the licensing daemon may not already be running, in which case, the licensing daemon needs to be started automatically before executing the application.

For such deployment scenarios, use a launch configuration file to specify where the application can locate the run-time files, and to ensure the licensing daemon is running.

There are two types of launch configuration file: an application launch configuration file, containing configuration for the specific application, and a default application launch configuration file, containing a default configuration that can be used with any application.

The configuration files are text files, which must be stored in the same directory as the executable when it is run. When naming the files, the application launch configuration filename must consist of the full name of the application executable (including extension), with the extension .mfcfg. For example, an application executable called myapp.exe requires a configuration file called myapp.exe.mfcfg. The default application launch configuration filename is always named mfdefault.exe.mfcfg.

Priority of settings

Settings in an application launch configuration file take priority over settings in a default application configuration file if both files exist. If neither launch configuration file exists, the application is launched according to the options that were set during COBOL Server installation.

Loading the launch configuration

If the main program of the application is a COBOL one, the application launch configuration file is loaded automatically.

However, if the main program is not written in COBOL, you must load the application launch configuration file. To do this, you need to add a call to the Micro Focus routine coblaunchconfig() before any COBOL code is executed in the application.