decoder

[pirish]

Hi
Can someone point me in the right direction. I just do technical support and am not a programmer as such. Store ask me could they extract some old data from what I think is an old cobol programme that has been on an old pc.

The front end to access the program has expired. The company that programmed it no longer exists. I only think it is a cobol program cause some file extensions end in .cob and cbx. The larger files I believe hold the data but there are no extensions .??? on them just a file name.

If I view these files with no extensions say with wordpad, I do see supplier names and various usful text but alot of garble too. I have been told this is because they are indexed.

My question is are there any easy decoding type tools on the internet to extract the data.

Thanks
PIRISH

 

[BigMag]

pirish,

I think you have the compiled source of a module or program. Only after linking the compiled sources, you have your executeble.

So there are three kinds of files involved: source, load and executable.
When your executable used files for read and write, there's a fourth kind (this one can be indexed), but this only contains data.

I've never heared of an indexed cobolsource.

Greetings,

M.

By the way, it's common at outsourcing, you use a clausule, that, in case of bankruptcy, your company obtains the source.

BigMag, The Netherlands.
bigmag@wanadoo.nl

 

[pirish]

Thanks M
So if I understand you correctly, it looks like I just have the compiled code at my end. In order to view the data files say in some text editor, the program would have to be run in its un-compiled state or source code. I suppose there is no such thing as an uncompiler for security and other reasons.

Anyway Thanks for your input
PIRISH


p.s.
I don't think the clause thing will work here. The company I work for was a kind of development site for this program. So it was more a gentlemans agreement. The arrangement was long before my time here anyway.

 

[k5tm]

Pirish,

You need to determine if you have COBOL source (i.e. human readable) programs. The file definitions would be especially useful, and it is possible that you might have the file definitions even if you have no other parts of the source programs.

Also, if you can get hex dumps of the first 128 bytes of one or two of the data files, there might be a hope of determining which COBOL compiler was used by your application vendor; this would narrow the set of tools that you would consider for data recovery. There are some tools available, but I am not aware of any that are free.

Did you ever use a report writer product with the old system? If so, there might be a data dictionary for the report writer that would contain useful information.

There almost certainly is no 'uncompiler'.

Tom

 

[saginaw]

From your note it is difficult to tell what you have...

If you want to send us a couple of the files we will take a quick look and may be able to help or point you in the right direction. My e-mail address is below in signature.

or

I can send you a hex-dump utility program that will dump the information. However, if you are not a programmer this may not help. Saginaw
helpdesk@simotime.com

http://www.simotime.com

 

[Crox]

Hi,

The indexed information has a format that depends on the compiler.

There are programs like bin2txt which can extract readable text from a file. I expect some copyright notices also inside the old programs, that will say something about the manufacturer of the compiler. When we know this, perhaps someone knows also a method to make the data readable.

Can you read the .COB files? That should be COBOL source. Somewhere there must be something like IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.

Regards,

Crox

 

[pirish]

Hi folks
Back after the weekend. Thanks for all your input.

K5tm, I am not famililar with hex dumping a program. To me that sounds like attempting to crash the program in mid flight and see what is dumps.

The batch file that starts the lot of just reads RUNCBL -W -C CBLCONFI -124 TRA000.COB

The tra000.cob has some readable text in it. Other .cob files have very little txt.

The larger files with no extensions trahis traret tramnt traoln trawif tradpm range from 96mb to 16mb. I persume these hold the data.

Saginaw,
I may take you up on your offer of emailing a file or 2.

Crox
Where would I find this bin2txt program, I will have a go with it and see can I find anything useful.

Thanks all
PIrish

 

[Crox]

Hi,

such a bin2txt or similar program can be found at the old (DOS) free downloads of Ziff-Davis.

Regards,

Crox

 

[k5tm]

Pirish,

Hex dump (k5tm) = bin2txt (crox). Crox and saginaw are both offering help in getting a utility to do this.

The RUNCBL command leads me to believe that ACUCOBOL was the COBOL compiler used for this application. What is in the file CBLCONFI? This would seem to be a text file containing configuration information for the RUNCBL command. If so, that would help narrow the search for data recovery tools.

[Also, you might wish to mark this thread for e-mail notification (big red check mark). That would help speed up information interchange.]

Best regards,
Tom

 

[pirish]

Problem sorted.

Found a year 2000 tape backup. Info is static so has not changed in since. We changed the date of the unit and it has worked. Info exported.

Thanks again
PIrish