How to compile with GnuCOBOL

Question

I am trying to add a task to compile a program but am having difficulty with setting environment variables. I have this:

{
  // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink LinkId=733558
  // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
  "version": "2.0.0",
   "label": "GnuCOBOL - Compile (single file)",
   "type": "shell",
   "options": {
    "env": {
        "PATH=c:\\gnucobol3\\bin"
        "COB_CONFIG_DIR=c:\\gnucobol3\\config"
        "COB_COPY_DIR=c:\\gnucobol3\\copy"
        "COB_INCLUDE_PATH=c:\\gnucobol3\\include"
        "COB_LIB_PATH=c:\\gnucobol3\\lib"
       },
    "command": "cobc",
    "args": [
      "-x",
      "-std=mf",
      "-tPROG.LST",
      "BBCB.CBL"
      ]
    },
}

The env entries all have squiggly lines underneath and show errors "Colon expected".

I'd appreciate some help. Thanks.

Please recheck the answers, upvote any "helpful" answers and accept whatever worked for you. If your original question is not answered leave comments on the answers. Thx. — Simon Sobisch, Jul 02 '19 at 11:12
Please recheck the answers, upvote any "helpful" answers and accept whatever worked for you. If your original question is not answered leave comments on the answers. Thank you. — Simon Sobisch, Jul 12 '23 at 06:12

DazWilkin · Answer 1 · 2019-05-19T05:54:47.867

1

The file paths are for a Windows-based OS (c:\ ...). If you're using Linux, these are incorrect.

This format is JSON.

"env": { ... } takes key:value pairs (determined by the braces) so you will want:

"PATH": "c:\\gnucobol3\\bin",

A colon (:) separates the key and the value and a comma (,) separates key:value pairs.

Unsure whether you need to escape the file paths \\ or just \.

NB "args": [ ... ] takes an array of string values (determined by the square brackets) which is why it differs from "env"

edited May 19 '19 at 05:54

answered May 19 '19 at 05:43

DazWilkin

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Daz: thanks. I am not familiar with .JSON hence my puny attempts to define a task. I've modified tasks.json as you suggested and there no more squiggly lines :-) – paoloricardo May 20 '19 at 01:21
No worries! It was new to all of us at some point. It's a widely-used format so you'll likely encounter it again. Good to "no squiggly lines" but -- as importantly -- does your code now compile? – DazWilkin May 20 '19 at 03:15
Daz: yes, but I needed further assistance with respect to the structure of tasks.json. Thanks again. – paoloricardo May 20 '19 at 06:19

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '19 at 09:51

The env entries all have squiggly lines underneath and show errors "Colon expected".

Because it expects a contained list which should have colons in and uses commas for separation (identical to the options variable) [note: that actually is a json issue, using that tag may be reasonable]. See Schema for tasks.json.

Also your script has some file names hard-wired (which is a vscode specific), you'll likely want to use the supported variables instead.

Untested result:

{
  // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink LinkId=733558
  // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
  "version": "2.0.0",
   "label": "GnuCOBOL - Compile (single file)",
   "type": "shell",
   "options": {
    "env": {
        "PATH": "c:\\gnucobol3\\bin",
        "COB_CONFIG_DIR": "c:\\gnucobol3\\config",
        "COB_COPY_DIR": "c:\\gnucobol3\\copy",
        "COB_INCLUDE_PATH": "c:\\gnucobol3\\include",
        "COB_LIB_PATH": "c:\\gnucobol3\\lib",
       },
    "command": "cobc",
    "args": [
      "-x",
      "-std=mf",
      "-t${fileBasenameNoExtension}.LST",
      "${file}"
      ]
    },
}

Simon: thanks. I was going to try and 'generalise' the task when I had sorted out the errors. See post above. — paoloricardo, May 20 '19 at 01:22
@paoloricardo ensure you mark an answer as "solution" (=what worked for you) and upvote any answers that were helpful. Note: for "more info" I highly suggest to check the documentation I've linked... — Simon Sobisch, May 20 '19 at 10:51

How to compile with GnuCOBOL

2 Answers2