Preparing remote projects for debugging

You use a COBOL Application debug configuration to debug projects developed on a remote UNIX machine. Before you can debug the remote application, you need to have an X window implementation installed and running, so that the output of a remote application running on a UNIX machine can be viewed on your local machine. You do not need X window for other debug configuration types.

Windows:

Micro Focus ViewNow X is provided as part of Visual COBOL. See Installing X Windows on Windows in the Installation section. Find the ViewNow X documentation on the Micro Focus Customer Care dropdown menu.

UNIX:

Ensure the local X11 server can receive connections from the remote machine. You can do this using the xhost + command or by enabling SSH port forwarding. Alternatively, enable TCP/IP connections for X11 by setting a value in a configuration file in a manner appropriate to your operating system. For example:
  • Red Hat: run the gdmsetup utility and deselect Deny TCP connections to Xserver in the Security tab (this configures DisallowTCP=false in /etc/gdm/custom.conf)
  • SUSE: set DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER_TCP_PORT_6000_OPEN="yes" in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager

Configuring the X window

Specify the connection and appearance details in the IDE preferences, as follows:

  1. Click Window > Preferences > Micro Focus > Debug.

    The options in the Remote Launching group are the ones directly relating to the X window behavior.

  2. In the Default X Server (DISPLAY) field, enter the display details.

    The default value is ${hostname}:0.0.

  3. To change the font used in the display, modify the value of the X Font field.
  4. If you are not using the default port number (8000) to debug remote projects, modify the Default cobdebugremote port field.
  5. Modify any of the remaining debug settings, as applicable.
  6. Click Apply and Close.
Parent topic: Preparing projects for debugging