Build descriptor options used with COBOL

A Build Descriptor part controls the generation process. Build descriptor options are one of several types of information in a build descriptor part. Build descriptor options specify how to generate and prepare EGL output, and a subset of the build descriptor options can cause other build parts to be included in the generation process.

The next two tables list all the build descriptor options that can be used with COBOL.

These tables are restricted to those build descriptor options that are used in COBOL generation. For a list of all available options, see Overview of build descriptor options. For options used in Java™ generation, see Build descriptor options used with Java.

Table 1. Build descriptor option platform compatibility
Build descriptor option

iSeries
(COBOL)

z/OS
batch

CICS
for
z/OS

IMS
BMP

IMS/VS

bidiConversionTable Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
bind No Yes Yes Yes Yes
blanksAsZero Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
buildPlan Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
cancelAfterTransfer No Yes No Yes Yes
checkIndices Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
checkNumericOverflow Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
checkToTransaction No No Yes No No
checkType Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
cicsEntries No No Yes No No
clientCodeSet Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
commentLevel Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
currencySymbol Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
data No Yes Yes Yes Yes
debugLocalDateFormat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
debugTrace Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
decimalSymbol Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
defaultDateFormat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
defaultMoneyFormat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
defaultNumericFormat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
defaultTimeFormat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
defaultTimeStampFormat Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
deploymentDescriptor Yes Yes Yes No No
destHost Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
destLibrary Yes No No No No
destPassword Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
destPort Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
destUserID Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
eliminateSystemDependentCode Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
enableJavaWrapperGen Yes No Yes No Yes
endCommArea No No Yes No No
errorDestination No No No Yes Yes
fillWithNulls Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
formServicePgmType No Yes No Yes No
genDataTables Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
genDDSFile Yes No No No No
genDirectory Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
genFixedLengthSqlLike Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
genFormGroup Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
genHelpFormGroup Yes No Yes No Yes
genProject Yes No Yes No Yes
genReturnImmediate No No Yes No No
genRunFile No Yes No Yes No
genVGUIRecords Yes No Yes No Yes
imsFastPath No No No No Yes
imsID No No No Yes Yes
imsLogID No No No Yes Yes
imsPSB No No No Yes Yes
initIORecordsOnCall Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
initNonIODataOnCall Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
leftAlign Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
linkage Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
linkEdit No Yes Yes Yes Yes
math Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
maxNumericDigits Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
mfsDevice No No No Yes Yes
mfsExtendedAttr No No No Yes Yes
mfsIgnore No No No Yes Yes
mfsUseTestLibrary No No No Yes Yes
nextBuildDescriptor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
positiveSignIndicator Yes No No No No
prep Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
printDestination No No Yes No No
projectID No Yes Yes Yes Yes
reservedWord Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
resourceAssociations Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
restartTransactionID No No Yes No No
restoreCurrentMsgOnError No No No Yes No
returnTransaction No No Yes No Yes
secondaryTargetBuildDescriptor Yes No Yes No Yes
separatorSymbol Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
serverCodeSet Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
setFormItemFull Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
spaADF No No No No Yes
spaSize No No No No Yes
spaStatusBytePosition No No No No Yes
spacesZero Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
sqlDB Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
sqlErrorTrace No Yes Yes Yes Yes
sqlID Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
sqlIOTrace No Yes Yes Yes Yes
sqlJDBCDriverClass Yes No No No No
sqlPassword Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
sqlValidationConnectionURL Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
startTransactionID No No Yes No No
statementTrace No Yes Yes Yes Yes
synchOnPgmTransfer No No Yes No No
synchOnTrxTransfer No Yes No Yes No
sysCodes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
system Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
targetNLS Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
tempDirectory Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
templateDir Yes Yes No Yes No
transferErrorTransaction No No Yes No No
truncateExtraDecimals Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
twaOffset No No Yes No No
useXctlForTransfer No Yes No Yes No
v60DecimalBehavior Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
v60NumWithCharBehavior Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
v60NumWithDateBehavior Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
v60SQLNullableBehavior Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
v71AddBehavior Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
vagCompatibility Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
validateMixedItems Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
validateOnlyIfModified Yes No Yes No Yes
validateSQLStatements Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
workDBType No No Yes No Yes
wrapperCompatibility No No Yes No Yes
wrapperJNDIPrefix No No Yes No Yes
Table 2. Build descriptor option descriptions and default values
Build descriptor option Default value Description
bidiConversionTable No default value Identifies a conversion table, but only when you generate a COBOL program that contains literals with Arabic or Hebrew characters.
bind No default value Identifies the bind control part, which is meaningful only when you generate a COBOL program that runs on z/OS® and accesses SQL tables on DB2®.
blanksAsZero NO Controls what happens when you assign or compare a text variable to a numeric variable.
buildPlan YES Specifies whether a build plan is created during the generation process.
cancelAfterTransfer NO Indicates whether a generated COBOL program is removed from memory when the program issues a transfer to program statement and a dynamic linkage is involved.
checkIndices YES Specifies whether to support index range and null value checking.
checkNumericOverflow YES Specifies whether the generated code will check for numeric overflow.
checkToTransaction YES Indicates whether a special check is included in a generated CICS® program that issues a transfer to transaction statement.
checkType NONE Specifies the degree to which EGL checks at validation time for primitive-type conflicts within structures and records.
cicsEntries NONE Specifies whether to produce CICS program and transaction definitions, and if so, in what format.
clientCodeSet IBM-850 Specifies the name of the coded character set that is in effect on the system.
commentLevel 1 Specifies the extent to which EGL system comments are included in output source code.
currencySymbol For COBOL, determined by the language code of the runtime system Specifies a currency symbol that is composed of one to three characters.
data 31 Specifies whether to use the DATA(24) or DATA(31) compile option to prepare a generated COBOL program.
debugLocalDateFormat Date format returned by the JDBC driver Specifies the date format pattern for the text host variables associated with date columns in the debugger.
debugTrace NO Indicates whether EGL embeds trace information within a generated COBOL program.
decimalSymbol For COBOL, determined by the language code of the runtime system Specifies the symbol to be used as the decimal indicator.
defaultDateFormat For COBOL, if this option is not specified, the associated system variable defaults to the Long Gregorian date format specified in the language-dependent options module for your runtime installation. Controls the initial runtime value of the strLib.defaultDateFormat system variable
defaultMoneyFormat No default value Controls the initial runtime value of the strLib.defaultMoneyFormat system variable
defaultNumericFormat No default value Controls the initial runtime value of the strLib.defaultNumericFormat system variable
defaultTimeFormat For COBOL, the default value is HH:mm:ss Controls the initial runtime value of the strLib.defaultTimeFormat system variable
defaultTimeStampFormat For COBOL, the default value is yyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss:SSSSSS Controls the initial runtime value of the strLib.defaultTimeStampFormat system variable
deploymentDescriptor No default value Contains the name of the EGL deployment descriptor. That descriptor provides service-binding detail when you are generating a service, as well as service-binding detail when you are generating a logical unit (program, library, handler, or service) that invokes a service.
destHost No default value Specifies the name or numeric TCP/IP address of the target system where the build server resides.
destLibrary QGPL Specifies the 1- to 10-character name of the iSeries library that receives the objects created during generation and contains the objects used at run time.
destPassword No default value Specifies the password that EGL uses to log on to the system where preparation occurs.
destPort No default value Specifies the port on which a remote build server is listening for build requests.
destUserID No default value Specifies the user ID that EGL uses to log on to the system where preparation occurs.
eliminateSystemDependentCode YES Indicates whether the EGL generator ignores code that will never run in the target system.
enableJavaWrapperGen YES (allow all) Specifies whether all or only some of the following components can be generated when you attempt to generate the program: the program, Java wrapper classes, and related EJB session bean.
endCommArea NO Indicates whether to add four bytes of hexadecimal F values to the end of the COMMAREA on calls from EGL-generated CICS COBOL programs.
errorDestination ELAPRINT (for IMS™ BMP); or ELADIAG (for IMS/VS) Specifies the destination of diagnostic messages.
fillWithNulls YES Indicates whether to fill form fields with null characters.
genDataTables YES Specifies whether you want to generate the data tables that are referenced in the program you are generating.
genDDSFile NO Indicates whether you want to create iSeries data description specification (DDS) files from the record declarations with which your program does input or output.
genDirectory No default value Specifies the fully qualified path of the directory into which EGL places generated output and preparation-status files.
genFixedLengthSqlLike NO Indicates whether a host value used in an SQL LIKE clause includes trailing blanks to conform to the fixed length of the value, if the value is of type CHAR, MBCHAR, or UNICODE.
genFormGroup YES Indicates whether to generate the form group that is referenced in the use declaration of the program being generated.
genHelpFormGroup YES Indicates whether to generate the help form group that is referenced in the use declaration of the program being generated.
genProject No default value Used in COBOL generation when the project has associated Java objects. Places the output of Java generation into a workbench project and automates tasks that are required for Java runtime setup.
genReturnImmediate NO Specifies whether the generated CICS COBOL program exits with a CICS RETURN IMMEDIATE statement.
genRunFile YES Indicates whether to produce sample runtime JCL for a z/OS batch program that you are generating.
genVGUIRecords YES Indicates whether to generate the VGUI records that are referenced in converse or show statements of a web transaction.
imsFastPath NO Specifies whether the program can run as an IMS fast-path program.
imsID No default value Specifies the IMS DB control ID for your database; the value is used when you debug IMS code that accesses DL/I.
imsLogID No default value Specifies an identifier that will be included in records written to the IMS log.
imsPSB Several alternatives Specifies the default PSB that is loaded for the program at debug time.
initIORecordsOnCall YES Specifies when called program IO records are initialized.
initNonIODataOnCall YES Specifies when called program non-IO-record and primitive variables are initialized.
leftAlign YES Indicates whether to left-justify the output data on some form fields.
linkage No default value Contains the name of the linkage options part that guides aspects of generation.
linkEdit No default value Identifies a link edit part, which is meaningful only when you generate a COBOL program for z/OS environments.
math COBOL Specifies whether to do arithmetic calculations based on CSP math, which is used in some COBOL programs that were written either with IBM® Cross System Product (CSP) or with VisualAge® Generator.
maxNumericDigits 31 Specifies the size of numeric fields. This applies only to COBOL generation.
mfsDevice No default value Specifies information to include in the EGL-generated DEV and DFLD statements, for form-group generation targeted to IMS.
mfsExtendedAttr YES Indicates a default value for whether the devices support extended attributes and for whether a color default (CD) extended attribute is generated for form fields that are defined with color = default color.
mfsIgnore NO Indicates whether to include IGNORE in the SOR parameter of the MSG statement for the EGL-generated MID and MOD.
mfsUseTestLibrary NO Specifies whether the build script will cause the build server to place the MFS control blocks in a test library.
nextBuildDescriptor No default value Identifies the next build descriptor in the chain.
positiveSignIndicator F Specifies the character that the iSeries-based ILE COBOL compiler uses as the positive sign for numeric data of types DECIMAL, MONEY, NUM, NUMC, and PACF.
prep YES Specifies whether EGL begins preparation when generation completes successfully.
printDestination

PROGRAM
CONTROLLED

Specifies the destination of printed output for basic programs generated for CICS.
projectID No default value Assigns a value to the EZEPID symbolic parameter, which is used in build scripts that run on z/OS.
reservedWord No default value Specifies a fully qualified path name for a text file that contains reserved words other than the EGL reserved words.
resourceAssociations No default value Contains the name of a resource associations part, which relates record parts to files and queues on the target platforms.
restartTransactionID A blank Indicates the transaction ID used to restart a program generated for CICS for z/OS.
restoreCurrentMsgOnError YES for transaction-oriented BMPs; else, NO Specifies whether, if an IMS BMP ends because of an error, a message that is being read by an EGL statement is reinserted on the IMS message queue.
returnTransaction No default value Identifies the CICS transaction that starts when the transaction associated with the generated program ends without a transfer.
secondaryTargetBuildDescriptor No default value Specifies a build descriptor that guides the generation of code being deployed to a web application server, while other code (which is targeted for other environments) is being generated in the same generation request.
separatorSymbol For COBOL, determined by the language of the runtime system Specifies the symbol used for separating the thousands and hundreds in a numeric value.
serverCodeSet IBM-037 Specifies the name of the coded character set that is used by the z/OS or iSeries build server.
setFormItemFull YES Indicates whether to display asterisks (*) in every empty form field for which you specified a set statement of the type set field full.
spaADF NO Specifies whether the IMS/VS program being generated transfers to or from an IMSADF II program.
spaSize 0 Specifies the number of bytes in the IMS scratch-pad area.
spaStatusBytePosition No default value Specifies the position of a segmentation status byte in the IMS scratch pad area.
spacesZero NO Specifies whether a generated COBOL program includes extra code to process numeric fields that are filled with spaces.
sqlDB No default value Specifies the default database used by a generated program.
sqlErrorTrace NO Specifies whether a generated COBOL program includes the code necessary to trace errors that occur during I/O operations against a relational database.
sqlID No default value Specifies a user ID that is used to connect to a database during generation-time validation of SQL statements.
sqlIOTrace NO Specifies whether a generated COBOL program includes the code necessary to trace the I/O operations done against a relational database.
sqlJDBCDriverClass No default value Specifies a driver class that is used to connect to a database during generation-time validation of SQL statements.
sqlPassword No default value Specifies a password that is used to connect to a database during generation-time validation of SQL statements.
sqlValidationConnectionURL No default value Specifies a URL for connecting to the database during generation-time validation of SQL statements.
startTransactionID No default value Indicates the transaction ID used to start a program that is generated for CICS.
statementTrace NO Specifies whether a generated COBOL program includes the code necessary to trace non-SQL statements.
synchOnPgmTransfer YES Specifies whether to set a commit point in CICS in a way that minimizes the difference between processing on CICS and IMS.
synchOnTrxTransfer NO Specifies whether a commit point occurs when a main program that is generated for z/OS batch or IMS BMP runs a transfer to transaction statement.
sysCodes NO Determines the source of the return code that is placed in the sysVar.errorCode system variable in response to a file I/O error in a COBOL program.
system No default value Specifies the target runtime environment of the generated code. This option is required.
targetNLS No default value Specifies the national language code used to identify runtime messages.
tempDirectory No default value Specifies the location where EGL places two kinds of files: the Intermediate Representation (IR) files that are created when using the EGLSDK, and the JSP files created when generating a VGWebTransaction program or VGUIRecord.
templateDir None Specifies the directory that contains templates used to produce runtime JCL for z/OS or runtime CL for iSeries.
transferErrorTransaction No default value Specifies the name of a CICS transaction that receives control when a transfer statement results in an error.
truncateExtraDecimals YES Specifies whether the additional digits after the decimal point in a numeric value will be dropped during an assignment.
twaOffset 0 Specifies how many bytes in the transaction work area (TWA) are reserved for use by non-EGL programs in the same CICS run unit.
useXctlForTransfer NO Indicates whether to use an XCTL command to implement any transfer to program statement.
v60DecimalBehavior Depends on vagCompatibility Controls the precision of an even-length DECIMAL, MONEY, or PACF variable.
v60NumWithCharBehavior Depends on vagCompatibility Indicates whether to treat NUM variables in the same way as all other numeric variables in assignments and comparisons that involve CHAR variables.
v60NumWithDateBehavior NO Specifies whether the behavior of assignments from Num fields to Date fields fulfills the behavior that was in effect in EGL version 6.
v60SQLNullableBehavior Depends on vagCompatibility Specifies how EGL behaves when a null value is assigned to a variable.
v71AddBehavior NO States whether, in a specific case, the effect of the plus (+) sign is determined by the type of variable to which an expression is assigned.
vagCompatibility NO Indicates whether the generation process permits the use of special program syntax.
validateMixedItems YES Specifies whether a generated COBOL program validates fields that are of type MBCHAR.
validateOnlyIfModified NO Specifies whether to validate only those text-form fields for which the modified data tag is set.
validateSQLStatements NO Indicates whether SQL statements are validated against a database at generation time.
workDBType

AUX, for CICS;
DLI, for IMS

Specifies the type of work database to use at run time.
wrapperCompatibility CURRENT Indicates how to regenerate wrappers that you intend to use with handwritten Java code when the wrappers were originally generated by VisualAge Generator 4.5, EGL 5.x, or EGL 6.x.
wrapperJNDIPrefix No default value Specifies a prefix to be added to all JNDI names for generated session beans.
wrapperPackageName No default value Specifies the package to generate Java wrappers into.

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