Managing files forms the central focus of most COBOL applications. This section discusses the implementation and special features
of the three types of files: sequential, relative, and indexed.
ACUCOBOL-GT supports variable-length records in accordance with ANSI standards for all file types. A file's records are variable-length
whenever any one of these conditions is true:
- The RECORD CONTAINS clause contains the VARYING phrase.
- The RECORD CONTAINS clause contains both a minimum and maximum size.
- There is no RECORD CONTAINS clause but the file's FD specifies more than one record, and those records have different sizes.
A file's records are fixed-length whenever:
- The RECORD CONTAINS clause specifies only a maximum record size.
- There is no RECORD CONTAINS clause, and the file's FD does not specify multiple records having different sizes.
Note: ACUCOBOL-GT automatically closes all of its files if it is killed by the user. However, a power failure, turning off the computer,
or issuing a kill -9 from the console are catastrophic exits. In these cases, ACUCOBOL-GT cannot close its files.