I have been struggling with GNUcobol for the last three days.
no matter what I do cobc does not come up as a valid command or is not found.
I followed all of the download instructions and even updated the environment variables.
There is just no cobc.Exe to be found anywhere.
I checked the bin folder in the GNU COBOL 3.2 folder and there is no cobc.
Big Dan the Blogging Man Web page has very good instructions on the install and his bin folder does have a cobC.exe. Could this be some type of Windows Defender antivirus issue I don't understand what is happening This should be so simple and to make it even worse who knows what I will run into when trying to use this thing with Visual Studio Code. Can somebody please help me out here.
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In your situation I suggest to get rid of the GnuCOBOL folder, try un-doing the environment changes... and then
* download and install the package from https://superbol.eu/en/developers/windows-aio-3.2/ choose to setup environment during install
* if you don't use vscode already (and even if you do ;-), consider installing vscodium instead (same editor, no proprietary plugins or telemetry/tracking either) https://vscodium-next.netlify.app/
* use the superbol extension, which will not only provide you with some COBOL highlighting but a full LSP under the hood, and also provide you with a debugger for GnuCOBOL generated programs https://superbol.eu/en/#solutions.superbol-studio
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Thank you for responding That's exactly what I need in one click install like they use on Mac apps and programs either way I don't see why the Cobc is not showing up in the folder I am sorry but I do not know what 7z is My expertise is on mainframes and Macs. I downloaded the folder and did an extract to the C drive Isn't that what you're supposed to do This is so frustrating
I'm going to try the download from the Superboll site now Thank you for your suggestion
Last edit: gus schultz 2025-07-10
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the link I've shared is a real installer... the one from Arnold is a self-extracting archive only (you can rename .7z to. exe), but again, it sounded like you may not even want to use the command line in the first place... so the installer + vscode extension seems the way that you do seek. But maybe I was wrong with that thinking...
(and if you want to use GnuCOBOL a more "traditional mainframe way" then vscode is possibly not what you look for and want to go with something like https://www.wincobol.com/ [click on the "after the install is completed..." to get a clue what is awaiting you)
Last edit: Simon Sobisch 2025-07-10
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Oh wow thank you very much for that Wincobol recommendation It has a CICS emulation I can't wait to try it once I get everything working. Really appreciate it
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The Super Bowl download site install something called GNU Cobalt AIO into programs folder I then went to the command line and ran cobc --version
got this result
cobc (GnuCOBOL) 3.3-dev.0
Copyright (C) 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Keisuke Nishida, Roger While, Ron Norman, Simon Sobisch, Edward Hart
Built Jun 24 2024 00:47:54
Packaged Jun 23 2024 22:46:58 UTC
C version (MinGW) "13.2.0"
Does this mean that the Hello World program will now run in VS Studio Code
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It seems to have found the CobC in VS studio code but When trying to compile the hello world I get the following error
cobc -x
cobc: error: no input files
I have ahelloworld.Cob and a helloworld.Cbl
Is there something I need to configure on the VS Studio code side
Last edit: gus schultz 2025-07-10
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I'm so irritated and frazzled I forgot to put the program name so it seems like it's working You guys are the greatest I could've never figured it out without the help of this forum thank you very very much The SuperBol download seems to be the way to go.
👍
1
Last edit: gus schultz 2025-07-10
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I have been struggling with GNUcobol for the last three days.
no matter what I do cobc does not come up as a valid command or is not found.
I followed all of the download instructions and even updated the environment variables.
There is just no cobc.Exe to be found anywhere.
I checked the bin folder in the GNU COBOL 3.2 folder and there is no cobc.
Big Dan the Blogging Man Web page has very good instructions on the install and his bin folder does have a cobC.exe. Could this be some type of Windows Defender antivirus issue I don't understand what is happening This should be so simple and to make it even worse who knows what I will run into when trying to use this thing with Visual Studio Code. Can somebody please help me out here.
Could be...
In your situation I suggest to get rid of the GnuCOBOL folder, try un-doing the environment changes... and then
* download and install the package from https://superbol.eu/en/developers/windows-aio-3.2/ choose to setup environment during install
* if you don't use vscode already (and even if you do ;-), consider installing vscodium instead (same editor, no proprietary plugins or telemetry/tracking either) https://vscodium-next.netlify.app/
* use the superbol extension, which will not only provide you with some COBOL highlighting but a full LSP under the hood, and also provide you with a debugger for GnuCOBOL generated programs https://superbol.eu/en/#solutions.superbol-studio
This is the simplest way I know of
Use Mr.Tremblys URL
https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GnuCOBOL.htm
It is the equivalent of a one click install but does requrire 7z.
Ralph
Thank you for responding That's exactly what I need in one click install like they use on Mac apps and programs either way I don't see why the Cobc is not showing up in the folder I am sorry but I do not know what 7z is My expertise is on mainframes and Macs. I downloaded the folder and did an extract to the C drive Isn't that what you're supposed to do This is so frustrating
I'm going to try the download from the Superboll site now Thank you for your suggestion
Last edit: gus schultz 2025-07-10
the link I've shared is a real installer... the one from Arnold is a self-extracting archive only (you can rename .7z to. exe), but again, it sounded like you may not even want to use the command line in the first place... so the installer + vscode extension seems the way that you do seek. But maybe I was wrong with that thinking...
(and if you want to use GnuCOBOL a more "traditional mainframe way" then vscode is possibly not what you look for and want to go with something like https://www.wincobol.com/ [click on the "after the install is completed..." to get a clue what is awaiting you)
Last edit: Simon Sobisch 2025-07-10
Thanks for your suggestions I would prefer not to use the command line but I am trying all the suggestions now I really appreciate all of the help
Oh wow thank you very much for that Wincobol recommendation It has a CICS emulation I can't wait to try it once I get everything working. Really appreciate it
The Super Bowl download site install something called GNU Cobalt AIO into programs folder I then went to the command line and ran cobc --version
got this result
cobc (GnuCOBOL) 3.3-dev.0
Copyright (C) 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Keisuke Nishida, Roger While, Ron Norman, Simon Sobisch, Edward Hart
Built Jun 24 2024 00:47:54
Packaged Jun 23 2024 22:46:58 UTC
C version (MinGW) "13.2.0"
Does this mean that the Hello World program will now run in VS Studio Code
It seems to have found the CobC in VS studio code but When trying to compile the hello world I get the following error
cobc -x
cobc: error: no input files
I have ahelloworld.Cob and a helloworld.Cbl
Is there something I need to configure on the VS Studio code side
Last edit: gus schultz 2025-07-10
I'm so irritated and frazzled I forgot to put the program name so it seems like it's working You guys are the greatest I could've never figured it out without the help of this forum thank you very very much The SuperBol download seems to be the way to go.
Last edit: gus schultz 2025-07-10
I believe this post demonstrates once again the need to place this type of information directly on the site's home page: https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnucobol/
Hello,
Ive been working on this for 3 days with no success. I installed what you said. now i ran cobc and it worked. Thank you so much!
Joey D