Follow these steps for debugging with Micro Focus COBOL.

• First, create config/resources/kix_cobol_dbg.cfg configuration file. For more information, see Configuration.
• Second, use prepro-cics.pl utility to preprocess the COBOL program. For more information, see Configuration.
• Next, restart your application by using tmshutdown/tmboot or following the instructions in Dynamically Load the Debug Configuration File.
• Last, start Animator in one session at first and the Animator remains in waiting state until it attaches to a Micro Focus COBOL program that has been started in another session.

Follow these steps for debugging with COBOL-IT COBOL. For more information about Deet graphic UI, see COBOL-IT COBOL documentation.

• First, create config/resources/kix_cobol_dbg.cfg configuration file. For more information, see Configuration.
• Second, use prepro-cics.pl utility to preprocess the COBOL program. For more information, see Configuration.
• Next, restart your application by using tmshutdown/tmboot or following the instructions in Dynamically Load the Debug Configuration File.
• Next, start your transaction. It will hang before the COBOL program to run and wait you to start debug session.
• Next, use vncserver to start a VNC environment.

  In VNC xterm, start debug session with command deet -p myAnimSrvID1. It starts a Deet graphic UI and attaches the COBOL program. Note that you should start your transaction at first, and then start debug session with Deet tool.

• Last, you can debug the COBOL program step by step in Deet graphic UI

  Note:

  COBOL-IT COBOL Deet tool does not support LINK (local) inside one transaction. To debug LINK (local) cases, see Use Case 4: One user wants to debug two programs with LINK (remote).

Do the following configurations before debugging your COBOL programs in CICS Runtime.

• Configure kix_cobol_dbg.cfg configuration file.

  For more information, see Debug Configuration File.

• Use the prepro-cics.pl utility to preprocess the COBOL program.

  prepro-cics.pl -type_output=orig < RSSBT000.cbl > RSSBT000.cob

  Note:

  • Whenever a CICS COBOL application program runs, ART for CICS application server checks the above configurations to determine whether to enable debugging; therefore, you must complete all above configurations before debugging.
  • We recommend you to delete all .gnt files under COBOL source code directory.
  • The Linux user account that starts up the ART for CICS server must be the same as the Linux user account that runs the anim (for Micro Focus COBOL programs) / deet (for COBOL-IT COBOL programs) command line. Only the ANIMSRVID which the anim / deet utility specifies will be debugged.

You can dynamically load the debug configuration resource file kix_cobol_dbg.cfg without restarting the ART for CICS.

Do the following steps to dynamically load this configuration file.

1. Launch the artadmin utility.

   For more information, see artadmin (1).

2. Input config_update (cu).

   config_update (cu) propagates the configuration changes and requests the application servers to take in the changes in the configuration.

3. Input perform (p).

   perform (p) performs the commands submitted to the server and clears the commands buffer.

   If the buffer is not empty, the buffer container is displayed and a confirmation is required.

   If the submission fails, the message "Perform cancelled" is displayed, and the error is logged into the USERLOG.

4. Input quit (q).

   Input quit (q) to quit this session.

No matter which COBOL complier you use (Micro Focus COBOL or COBOL-IT), CICS runtime installs error procedure by default.

ART for CICS provides environment variable KIX_CBL_TRAP_ERROR to enable or disable COBOL LE (language environment) error procedure. Its default value is Y, meaning the error procedure is enabled. If KIX_CBL_TRAP_ERROR=N is specified, the COBOL LE (language environment) error procedure will be disabled and CICS runtime will take over the control when an exception is detected to avoid the CICS runtime server from dying. CICS runtime also generates relative information for the detected exception, which environment variable KIX_DUMP_TYPE controls.

Specially, if CICS runtime is running with COBOL-IT, you should also compile COBOL program with -debug compiler flag to enable the error procedure function.

For more information, see KIX_CBL_TRAP_ERROR and KIX_DUMP_TYPE.

If CICS runtime is running with COBOL-IT, ART for CICS will not only provide error procedure function but also dump final memory information of the program when COBOL LE error occurs.

You can enable this memory dump function by specifying the environment variable KIX_DUMP_FILE as a valid local file name. When COBOL LE error occurs, ART for CICS activates the error procedure at first, and then dumps the final memory information of program into the dump file which KIX_DUMP_FILE specifies.

The memory dump function also works when CICS verbs error occurs.

For more information, see KIX_SO_SUBSYS_WRAPPER..