The COBOL2000 compiler and the COBOL2000 runtime system comprehensively log all errors that occur during compilation and execution of a COBOL program. The messages which are output when errors are encountered can be divided into two groups:
Messages which refer to errors in the COBOL compilation unit: These are output in a diagnostic listing and/or an error file by the compiler at the end of compilation and have the following structure:
Msg-Index Source Seq. No Severity Code Error Text
where:Msg-Index
designates a 5-digit (hexadecimal) error message number (the first two characters indicate the compiler module which detected the error)
Source Seq. No
is the sequence number of the source line (in the compilation unit) containing the error
Severity Code
is the error class of the error, and
Error Text
is the text of the error message, which contains a more detailed description of the error and possibly a recovery measure.
Message texts can be output in English or German; the language can be selected via the SDF command MODIFY-MSG-ATTRIBUTES TASK-LANGUAGE=E/D.
A current list of all error messages of the COBOL2000 compiler can be requested with COMOPT PRINT-DIAGNOSTIC-MESSAGES=YES or with the SDF option COMPILER-ACTION=PRINT-MESSAGE-LIST (see section "Table of COMOPT operands" and section "COMPILER-ACTION option").
Attention
Errors for which the message text begins with SE-1 or S.E. must always to reported to the system administrator/supervisor.
Severity code
Meaning
F
Information
The compiler has identified language elements in the compilation unit which
represent an extension to the COBOL standard ANS85,
will not be supported by future COBOL standards,
as per FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard), must be assigned to a particular language set.
COBOL2000 issues severity code F messages only if they are explicitly requested with COMOPT ACTIVATE-WARNING-MECHANISM=YES or ACTIVATE-FLAGGING=ALL-FEATURES (SDF).
I
Information
The compiler has identified control statements or COBOL language elements that should be brought to the user's attention but do not justify issuing a warning or diagnostic message.
0
Warning
There may be an error in the compilation unit, but the program can still be executed. 1
Diagnostic
The compiler has detected an error; it will normally assume a corrective option. The program may be executed for test purposes. 2
Unrecoverable
Normally the compiler will not assume a corrective erroroption; the erroneous statement will not be generated. 3
System error
The error is so severe that the compiler is incapable of continuing the compilation. Table 37: Severity codes and their meaning
The following messages:
Messages generated by the compiler on the execution and termination of the compilation run (CBL90nn)
Messages generated by the COBOL2000 runtime system on the execution and termination of the user program (COB91nn)
Messages of the POSIX driver for COBOL (CBL92nn)
Messages generated when writing object-oriented programs (COB93nn)
These messages are output to SYSOUT during compilation or program execution and have the following structure:
{ CBL90nn | COB91nn | CBL92nn | COB93nn } Text
where:
CBL90nn
COB91nn
CBL92nn
COB93nnis the message identification number
Text
is the text of the message. It contains
a note on the execution of the compiler or user program run or
a more detailed description of the error that has occurred and
in some cases, the request for user input which would make the error recoverable.
Error messages can be output either in English or in German; the language can be selected via the SDF command MODIFY-MSG-ATTRIBUTES TASK-LANGUAGE=E/D.
The program name specified in “COMPILATION UNIT IS program-name” in the messages COB9101 and COB9102 always identifies a separately compiled program. This may be an individual program or the outermost containing program of a nested program.
Specifying the COMOPT operand GENERATE-LINE-NUMBER=YES or ERR-MSG-WITH-LINE-NR=YES in the SDF option RUNTIME-OPTIONS causes message COB9102 to be output with each program message instead of COB9101. The COB9102 message also contains the number of the source line being executed when the message was issued.
Messages CBL9004, CBL9017, CBL9095, CBL9097 and CBL9099 (which are output during compilation) are suppressed if job switch 4 is set before the compiler is invoked.
The HELP-MSG-INFORMATION command enables you to display the complete message text for a message. In particular it contains the following information:
Type (of message)
Meaning (of variables in the message)
Action (of the program)
If required, response (of the user)