Debugging from the Command Line (UNIX)

Note: This topic applies to UNIX environments only.

The Character Animator can be used to debug local, native COBOL applications. For a full explanation of the features of Character Animator, see The Character Animator.

If you have set your environment for just-in-time debugging (by setting the debug_on_error tunable), Character Animator is invoked if a running program terminates with a run-time system error; similarly, a program executing a CBL_DEBUG_START command also invokes Character Animator. You can also invoke it manually whenever you run a program, by using the +A COBOL run-time switch; or if you want to invoke it on a per-program basis, run your programs with the anim command.

Using a run-time switch

To set the environment to invoke Character Animator every time that you run a debuggable program, set the +A run-time switch in the COBSW environment variable:

set COBSW=+A
export COBSW

You can also use the switch on a per-program basis by specifying it when running the program:

cobrun +A myprog.int

Remember: The program must be compiled for debugging beforehand.

Using the anim command

Similar to the last example, you can also use a dedicated command to invoke the Character Animator on a per-program basis:

anim myprog.int

The file types available to use with the Character Animator are: .int, .gnt, .so