The programs handled by the CICS preprocessor must respect the following conditions, or else run the risk of producing errors at compile- or -run-time.

1. CICS Runtime must be installed. Some technical copy files used by prepro-cics.pl are delivered under cpylib CICS Runtime module.
2. The environment variable COBCPY, which indicates to the Micro Focus COBOL Compiler-or COBOL-IT compiler where copybooks are stored, must be correctly set to include CICS Runtime copy files (cpylib) during compilation time.
3. The following copy files must be inserted in the Working-Storage Section or the Local-Storage Section:
   • KIX--INDICS and KIX--ALL-ARGS, always;
   • KIX--CONDITIONS, always;
   • KIX--DFHRESP, always;
   • KIX--DFHVALUE, if the DFHVALUE pseudo-function is used in the program or one of the copy files it includes;
4. The following copy files must be inserted in the Linkage Section:
   • DFHEIBLK

5. The program must take exactly two parameters, DFHEIBLK (defined by the copy file of the same name) and DFHCOMMAREA, defined as suitable for the application PROCEDURE DIVISION. In other words, the program must look like this:

   LINKAGE  SECTION.
     COPY   DFHEIBLK.
    01      DFHCOMMAREA.
            ....
     PROCEDURE DIVISION USING DFHEIBLK DFHCOMMAREA.

The case of programs compiled with the NOLINKAGE option of the IBM CICS preprocessor is not (yet) supported by ART and the CICS Runtime preprocessor.