Compile listing
The report a compiler produces: the source with line numbers, error messages, and maps that help find where a program failed.
Also written compiler listing, IGY messages, LIST option, MAP option, statement offset
When you compile a program, the compiler writes a listing. It is often long, but some parts of it are used every day.
The source listing shows your program with a number on each line, including the lines brought in from copybooks. Messages appear next to the lines they refer to and in a summary at the end. Enterprise COBOL messages start with IGY and end with a letter for severity: I for information, W for warning, E for error, S for severe and U for unrecoverable. A return code of 4 means warnings only. 8 or more means the program has errors that need fixing.
With the MAP option, the listing shows where each data item sits in storage. With LIST or OFFSET, it shows which machine instructions belong to each statement. Those are what you need after an abend: the dump or the Language Environment messages give an offset into the program, and the listing turns that offset into a line of COBOL.
Sites usually keep listings for programs in production, because the listing must match the exact load module that failed.
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- CompileTurning COBOL source code into machine instructions, checking the syntax and producing a listing of any errors.
- DumpA copy of a program's memory taken at the moment it failed, used to find out why.
- AbendAn abnormal end: a program stopping in an uncontrolled way rather than finishing and reporting a result.
- COBOLThe programming language most business logic on the mainframe is written in. Verbose by design, and still running the world's payments.
- Return codeA number a program leaves behind saying how it went. Zero for clean, higher numbers for warnings and failures.
- Language EnvironmentThe common run-time support for COBOL, PL/I and C programs on z/OS, which handles storage, errors and messages while they run.