Accessing Environmental Variables or Command Line Arguments

[bojo]

I need to write a COBOL program to execute other programs or batch files. I need to
either get the filenames from a command line argument or an evironmental variable.

How do I one access an evironmental variable within Micro Focus COBOL, and TWO
How do I execute or start another program within Micro Focus COBOL, so that I can
check the return code, for successful competion?

I would also like to know the name of a good book/books or a website to obtain the
under the cover knowledge of Micro Focus COBOL.

Thanx
BoJo

 

[Crox]

Hi,

I would like to help you but Microfocus is probably much different from CA-REALIA which has a DOS interface to do this.

I give you the example to get all the environment variables and also the commandline.

If Microfocus is mainframe-look-alike, you can have a procedure division using command-line.

The command-line should be defined in the linkage-section and looks like this:

01 COMMAND-LINE.
03 LENGTH-OF-COMMAND PIC S9(4) COMP.
03 COMMAND-ITSELF.
05 FILLER OCCURS 1 TO 120 DEPENING ON LENGTH-OF-COMMAND PIC X.

The CA-REALIA possibility comes here after.

If you can execute a command-line you can also do something like this:

SET > SET.OUT

You can read the SET.OUT text file and do something with it.

Hope this helps.
000100*$CALL
000200 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
000300 PROGRAM-ID. TTEST003.
000400* COPYRIGHT (C) R.G. WOUTERSON
000500 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
000600 CONFIGURATION SECTION.
000700 SOURCE-COMPUTER. IBM-PC.
000800 OBJECT-COMPUTER. IBM-PC.
000900 SPECIAL-NAMES.
001000 DECIMAL-POINT IS COMMA.
001100 INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.
001200 FILE-CONTROL.
001300 DATA DIVISION.
001400 FILE SECTION.
001500 WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
001600 01 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE VALUE +1 PIC S9(4) COMP-5.
001700 01 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-FIRST VALUE +1 PIC S9(4) COMP-5.
001800 01 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-LENGTH VALUE +1 PIC S9(4) COMP-5.
001900 01 ENV-POINTER POINTER.
002000 01 MACHINE-ADDRESS REDEFINES ENV-POINTER.
002100 05 ADDRESS-OFFSET PIC S9(4) COMP-5.
002200 05 ADDRESS-SEGMENT PIC S9(4) COMP-5.
002300 01 FILLER REDEFINES ENV-POINTER.
002400 05 DISP-ADDRESS-OFFSET PIC 9(4) COMP-5.
002500 05 DISP-ADDRESS-SEGMENT PIC 9(4) COMP-5.
002600
002700 LINKAGE SECTION.
002800 01 ENVIRONMENT-GEBIED.
002900 03 ENVIRONMENT-BYTE OCCURS 32767 PIC X.
003000
003100 PROCEDURE DIVISION.
003200 MAIN-SECTION.
003300 0000.
003310******************************************************************
003320* *
003321* OPHALEN ENVIRONMENT INFORMATIE *
003323* *
003330******************************************************************
003400 CALL 'DOS_GET_ENV_ADDRESS' USING ENV-POINTER.
003500 SET ADDRESS OF ENVIRONMENT-GEBIED TO ENV-POINTER.
003600* EXHIBIT NAMED ADDRESS-OFFSET ADDRESS-SEGMENT.
003700* EXHIBIT NAMED DISP-ADDRESS-OFFSET DISP-ADDRESS-SEGMENT.
003800 PERFORM UNTIL ENVIRONMENT-BYTE (SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE) =
003900 LOW-VALUE
004000 MOVE SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE TO SUB-ENVIRONMENT-FIRST
004100 PERFORM UNTIL ENVIRONMENT-BYTE (SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE) =
004200 LOW-VALUE
004300 ADD +1 TO SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE
004400 END-PERFORM
004500 COMPUTE SUB-ENVIRONMENT-LENGTH =
004600 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE -
004700 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-FIRST
004800 DISPLAY ENVIRONMENT-GEBIED (SUB-ENVIRONMENT-FIRST:
004900 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-LENGTH)
005000 ADD +1 TO SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE
005100 END-PERFORM.
005110******************************************************************
005120* *
005130* OPHALEN COMMAND LINE INFO *
005140* *
005150******************************************************************
005200 DISPLAY 'COMMAND LINE INFO: ' WITH NO ADVANCING.
005400 ADD +3 TO SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE.
005410 MOVE SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE TO SUB-ENVIRONMENT-FIRST.
005500 PERFORM UNTIL ENVIRONMENT-BYTE (SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE) =
005600 LOW-VALUE
005700 ADD +1 TO SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE
005800 END-PERFORM.
005900 COMPUTE SUB-ENVIRONMENT-LENGTH =
006000 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-BYTE -
006100 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-FIRST
006200 DISPLAY ENVIRONMENT-GEBIED (SUB-ENVIRONMENT-FIRST:
006300 SUB-ENVIRONMENT-LENGTH).
006400 9999.
006500 GOBACK.
006600 DUMMY SECTION.
006700 ENTRY 'DUMMY' USING ENVIRONMENT-GEBIED.