Run-time Configuration Settings Available in the IDE

The run-time configuration settings for an application are available from Project Properties in the IDE. Additional settings, Deployment Characteristics, for configuring an application running under enterprise server are available from Service Interfaces Properties.

Some run-time behavior can be configured only by using run-time tunables, which are stored in a configuration file. See

The following configuration settings are available in the IDE:

ANSI Displays

Strip trailing spaces Select this to hide any trailing spaces in DISPLAY ... UPON CONSOLE statements.

Equivalent switch:

Allow command line redirection Select this to allow redirection of standard input, standard output and standard error from the command line of your character user interface application.

Equivalent switch: S5 run-time switch

ANSI input mode Select this to use the ANSI character set when inputting keystrokes. This enables characters such as the Euro symbol to be input and displayed.

Equivalent tunable: ansi_input_mode

Command Line Handling

Return trigger executable name as argument zero Select this to specify that argument 0 of a command line (for example, in ACCEPT ... FROM ARGUMENT VALUE statements) is considered to be the program name. If you don't select this, argument 0 is considered to be the first command-line parameter.

Equivalent tunable: arguments_are_initial

Return command line to first ANSI ACCEPT or READ STDIN Select this to return the command-line used to start your application in the first ACCEPT statement. If you don't select this, the first ACCEPT statement behaves like all others and takes input from the user. This is the ANSI-compliant behaviour.

Equivalent tunable: command_line_accept

Console Size

Console size Specify the size of the console or COBOL text window for your application, measured in character spaces. The default is 80 characters wide by 25 characters deep.

Equivalent switches: C4 run-time switch and C5 run-time switch

Date/Time Warp

Date Warp Specify the year, month and day to use for test purposes.

Equivalent tunables:

Dynamic Date Select this to treat the values specified by the current_day, current_month, and current_year tunables as clock start values that roll once they have been set.
Time Warp Specify the hour, minute and second to use for test purposes.

Equivalent tunables:

Dynamic Time Select this to treat the values specified by the current_hour, current_minute, and current_second tunables as clock start values that roll once they have been set.

Error Handling

Suppress divide-by-zero error reporting Select this to ignore run-time error 48 (Attempt to divide by zero) when executing programs compiled with directives CHECKDIV"OSVS", CHECKDIV"VCS2" or CHECKDIV"COBOL370". If this is set, the program continues to execute with unpredictable results. If this is not set, the program produces error message 48, and execution terminates.
Validate numeric fields Select this to check all numeric data items for valid numeric values when processing intermediate code. If a non-numeric value is detected, run-time error 163 (Illegal character in numeric field) is produced.

If you don't select this, data types are not checked. The result of moving a non-numeric value to a numeric data item is unpredictable.

Equivalent switch:

Error Messages Output

Choose whether to output error messages to a log file (Error output) or the console (Standard output).

Equivalent switch: I2 run-time switch

File Handling

Use default value Click this to use automatic memory management for SORT and MERGE operations.
Allocate at least ... bytes of memory Specify a minimum number of bytes of memory to allocate for SORT and MERGE operations.
Ensure duplicate keys are kept in order Select this to ensure that duplicate primary keys in a file are kept in order in any SORT or MERGE operation. If you don't select this, the order of duplicate primary keys is not guaranteed.

Equivalent switch:

Memory Strategy

Check bytes Check this to prepend and append check bytes to each memory allocation.

Equivalent tunable: memory_strategy with check bytes set

Check the last ... free memory blocks Specify the number of freed memory blocks to monitor for subsequent corruption.

Equivalent tunable: memory_strategy with check freed memory set

Reuse freed memory Check this if you want to allow freed memory being monitored for corruption to be used to satisfy allocation requests.

Equivalent tunable: memory_strategy with reuse set

Compatibility Check this to maintain compatibility with previous versions of the run-time system in the way it handles memory allocations.

Equivalent tunable: memory_strategy

Validate all memory when allocating and freeing Check this to validate memory each time an allocation or free operation is performed.

Equivalent tunable: memory_strategy with validate set

Non-Shared Memory

No threshold limit Click this if you do not want the run-time system to restrict the amount of memory available to the application
Allocate at most ... bytes of memory Specify the amount of memory to allocate to dormant programs in the run-time system. A dormant program is one which has been logically cancelled by the run unit, but has not been physically unloaded from memory. A dormant program can be executed considerably faster than one which has to be loaded from disk, so this memory allocation is effectively a cache of programs that have been cancelled but might be needed again.

When the size you specify is reached, all cancelled programs are unloaded, thereby releasing all of the dynamically allocated memory. If you specify a size of 0, all cancels will physically unload the program from memory.

Program Loading

Program search order Programs called without an explicit path are searched for in the selected order. See the equivalent tunable program_search_order for details.

Equivalent tunable: program_search_order

Enable program cache Select this to enable programs to be logically cancelled. When a CANCEL statement is encountered, the program is cancelled without being unloaded from memory. If the program is called again, it can be initialized and executed much faster than if it had been physically unloaded from memory. You can specify a limit to the amount of memory allocated to the COBOL run-time system in the Non-shared Memory section. When this limit is reached, logically cancelled programs are physically unloaded to create more free memory.

If you don't select this, programs are unloaded from memory as soon as they are cancelled by the run unit.

Testing

Allow execution of int code which contains compilation errors Select this to force intermediate code to be executed even if it contains S-level syntax errors. If the program contains errors, it will produce run-time error messages when executed. If you don't select this, you cannot execute intermediate code with S-level syntax errors.

Equivalent switch:

ANSI debug switch Select this to execute lines of code with a D in column 7, according to the ANSI debug specification. If you don't select this, lines of code with a D in column 7 are treated as comments.

Equivalent switch: D run-time switch

Deployment Characteristics

These characteristics are for configuring an application running under an enterprise server.

Application uses RETURN-CODE to indicate success/failure Check this if your application is container-managed and it uses the value of RETURN-CODE to indicate success or failure. If your application is container-managed and you don't check this, the application container will consider all invocations of the application to be successful.
Maximum success RETURN-CODE Specify the maximum value of RETURN-CODE that indicates success.
Reuse container after application termination Check this if your application leaves the application container in a tidy state, such that it can be reused for another service invocation.
Reuse container after non-fatal run-time system error Check this if your application leaves the application container in a tidy state after a non-fatal run-time error, such that it can be reused for another service invocation.
Application always exits Check this if you want the EXIT PROGRAM statement in the main program in your application to return control to the application container. If you uncheck this, the EXIT PROGRAM statement causes execution of the program to continue with the next executable statement.