3.1 RC1 Question

[Ralph Linkletter]

What does this mean ?
'-fassign=ibm' is ambiguous; possibilities: '-fassign-clause'
The existing scripts worked with 3.0, 3.1 Dev
Is IBM syntax for the Select assign clause no longer supported ?

What does this mean ?
-fassign-clause=<value> how to interpret 'ASSIGN word': as 'ASSIGN EXTERNAL word' or 'ASSIGN DYNAMIC word'
What value ?</value>

I thought the intent of improving -fassign was to support resolution of a dataset name via a batch file SET SYSUT1=C:\IBZANIM\GNUDATA\DATASET1 AND support the ASSIGN to with a static definition (MOVE 'C:\IBZANIM\GNUDATA\DATASET1.DAT to SYSUT1-DSN.
Both forms would be accepted by the compiler and RTS in a single run unit.
Is this not the case ?
IBM format has been eliminated ?

[Simon Sobisch]

Without further looking I'd guess the name always was the longer one and you've just used an abbreviation. Use the longer and everything is fine with both versions.
I'll have to recheck this as it looks strange, so thanks for the report.

[Edward Hart]

As part of improving the ASSIGN clause syntax checks, new configuration options were added to control what extensions are allowed. The new config options all begin with assign-, which is why the abbreviated compiler flag -fassign is now ambiguous.

IBM/EXTERNAL format is still suppoted - -fassign-clause=ibm will work as expected.

I have clarified the help text in [r3735].

[Ralph Linkletter]

_("how to interpret 'ASSIGN word': as 'ASSIGN EXTERNAL word' or 'ASSIGN DYNAMIC word', may be one of: dynamic, external, ibm (= external), mf (= dynamic)"))

I thought the intent of improving -fassign was to support resolution of a dataset name via a batch file SET SYSUT1=C:\IBZANIM\GNUDATA\DATASET1 AND support the ASSIGN to with a static definition (MOVE 'C:\IBZANIM\GNUDATA\DATASET1.DAT to SYSUT1-DSN')
Both forms would be accepted by the compiler and RTS in a single run unit.

I presume "dynamic" implies both forms from above ?
fassign-clause=mf,dynamic Correc t ?

I would suggest that the diagnostic look more like this:
-fassign=ibm' is ambiguous use the new form, for instance: -fassign-clause=ibm (add - clause)

[Edward Hart]

I presume "dynamic" implies both forms from above ? fassign-clause=mf,dynamic Correc t ?

-fassign-clause=mf and -fassign-clause=dynamic are synonyms. An assign clause like ASSIGN sysut1 is interpreted as ASSIGN DYNAMIC sysut1. This means sysut1 is taken to be the name of a variable and you can do MOVE "/my/file/path" TO sysut1.

Similarly, -fassign-clause=external is a syonym for -fassign-clause=ibm and ASSIGN sysut1 is interpreted as ASSIGN EXTERNAL sysut1.

The new synonyms provide Micro Focus nomenclature.

I thought the intent of improving -fassign was to support resolution of a dataset name via a batch file SET SYSUT1=C:\IBZANIM\GNUDATA\DATASET1 AND support the ASSIGN to with a static definition (MOVE 'C:\IBZANIM\GNUDATA\DATASET1.DAT to SYSUT1-DSN')
Both forms would be accepted by the compiler and RTS in a single run unit.

Yes. For example, consider the clause ASSIGN SYSUT1.

• With -fassign-clause=mf and -fno-implicit-assign-dynamic-var, SYSUT1 is taken to be a variable name if such a variable exists, otherwise SYSUT1 is taken to be the name of an environment variable (an external-file-name).

For completeness, here's what happens with other options:

• With just -fassign-clause=mf (-fimplicit-assign-dynamic-var is on by default), SYSUT1 is taken to be a variable name and is defined for you if it isn't in the data division.
• With -fassign-clause=ibm, SYSUT1 is always interpreted as the name of an environment variable.

[Ralph Linkletter]

I think I understand now.
Thank you Simon and Edward.

[Ralph Linkletter]

OPEN ERROR DD SYSUT1 NOT FOUND RC=: 35

-fassign-clause=mf does clean compile.
However the environment setting of SYSUT1 does not seem to be resolved at execution.
The script command for cobc was:
%ANIMDRIVE%\IBZANIM\WINGNU\BIN\cobc %1 %2 %3 -O0 -fcorrect-numeric -fgoto-entry=ok -LC:\WINGNU\INCLUDE %4 -L%ANIMDRIVE%\IBZANIM\WINGNU\INCLUDE -x -**fassign-clause=mf **-fno-gen-c-decl-static-call -fbinary-size=2-4-8 --tsymbols -fsign=ebcdic -fcomplex-odo -fimplicit-init -fsticky-linkage -fperform-osvs -fmove-ibm -fhostsign -fnotrunc -fno-recursive-check -fdefaultbyte=00 -Xref -LC:\PROGRA~1\IBM\SQLLIB\LIB\Win32 -ldb2api

The files referenced in the SET command are present in the directory as
indicated by the SET environment variable.

SET SYSUT1=%ANIMDRIVE%\IBZANIM\COBOL\EXAMPLE.COB
SET SYSUT2=%ANIMDRIVE%\IBZANIM\COBOL\COPIED.COB
STARTANIM
WINANIM1 FILEPROB
OPEN ERROR DD SYSUT1 NOT FOUND RC=: 35

c:\IBZANIM\COBOL>DIR EXAMPLE.COB COPIED.COB
 Directory of c:\IBZANIM\COBOL
04/17/2019  03:45 PM             6,633 EXAMPLE.COB
 Directory of c:\IBZANIM\COBOL
06/22/2020  04:56 PM             6,632 COPIED.COB

Results are as expected with 3.1 Dev and -fassign=ibm

OPEN INPUT CBLFILE-SUCCESSFUL
OPEN OUTPUT COB-FILE-SUCCESSFUL
CBLFILE-STATUS:10
RECORDS READ    =:0000000157
RECORDS CREATED =:0000000157

The banner line from the compile of FILEPROB.COB

GnuCOBOL 3.1-rc1.0 C:\IBZANIM\COBOL\FIL Sun Jul 26 12:50:07 2020 Page 0001

The code from FILEPROB.COB

        FILE-CONTROL.
           SELECT CBLFILE
               ASSIGN TO SYSUT1
               ORGANIZATION IS LINE SEQUENTIAL
               FILE STATUS CBLFILE-STATUS.

           OPEN OUTPUT COB-FILE.
           IF COB-FILE-STATUS NOT = '00'
               DISPLAY 'OPEN OUTPUT COB-FILE RC=:' COB-FILE-STATUS
               MOVE '1' TO EOD-SOURCE
           ELSE
               DISPLAY 'OPEN OUTPUT COB-FILE-SUCCESSFUL'
           END-IF.

With 3.1 RC1.0 Neither -fassign-clause=mf NOR -fassign-clause=ibm appear to be functional.
Both appear defective.

This form of assign is operational with 3.1 RC1.0

           SELECT CBLFILE
               ASSIGN TO SYSUT1-DSN
               ORGANIZATION IS LINE SEQUENTIAL
               FILE STATUS CBLFILE-STATUS
       77  SYSUT1-DSN PIC X(44) VALUE 'C:\IBZANIM\COBOL\EXAMPLE.COB'.
       77  SYSUT2-DSN PIC X(44) VALUE 'C:\IBZANIM\COBOL\COPIED.COB'.