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nasarslv · Beginner Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 1 Topics: 1

Hi,

If i am changing the copybook by adding new fields or changing the length of the field, do i need to compile all the cobol program which is using this copybook.

Please let me know.

semigeezer · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:54 pm Post subject:

Think about it. If you have two programs allocate or map the same piece of storage differently, will they operate correctly together?

There are limited cases where not compiling all programs that share a copybook *may* work: for example, if you add fields at the end only, or the offsets and definitions of the fields they both reference haven't changed, but you WILL eventually run into problems and they will be VERY difficult to diagnose because you will think that both programs allocate/reference/free storage the same way and they don't. This problem is exactly the reason that source code managment systems (SCMs) such as SCLM, ISPW, Endeavor, CCC, PVCS, etc, etc exist.