GnuCOBOL
A free/libre COBOL compiler
GnuCOBOL produces native executables from COBOL source code. It is known to work on Linux, BSD, many proprietary Unixes, macOS, and Windows, among others.
The current release, version 3.2, is the best version for all users. It has been extensively tested on a variety of platforms and is being used in commercial settings.
Features of GnuCOBOL include
- COBOL with C integration
- 19 COBOL dialects
-
REPORT SECTION
SCREEN SECTION
FUNCTION-ID
- COBOL 2014 Compiler Directing Facility feature set
- Over 9740 NIST COBOL 85 test suite tests passed, over 37000 tests in nearly 1300 internal test groups
-
Integrated IDE debugging
and GNU gdb support
GnuCOBOL 3.2 — Latest release
Released 28 July 2023
GnuCOBOL 3.2 includes many new features compared to the previous release, while maintaining full source compatibility - (too much to note here but found in the linked NEWS), here are some of the highlights:
- improved dialect handling including changed defaults to better match the selected dialect (see NEWS if you compile with any -std to know more about the implications), a complete new dialect GCOS and support for more COBOL statements, intrinsic functions and syntax from both "old" and new dialects
- highly improved run-times for several statements, along with less memory usage, especially if runtime checks are enabled
- fileio changes to support LINE-SEQUENTIAL per COBOL2023 and runtime options to change the way files are handled, see NEWS and runtime.cfg
- improvements for source-level debugging via GDB and coredump support
GnuCOBOL 3.1.2
Released 23 December 2020
GnuCOBOL 3.1.2 includes many new features compared to the previous release, while maintaining full source compatibility - (too much to note here but found in the linked NEWS), here are some of the highlights:
Huge improvements for compatibility to different COBOL dialects, better error handling and adjustable exceptions per COBOL 2002/2014; more modern format for diagnostic messages (especially useful when used in an integrated development environment possible in Emacs, Vim, VSCodium and others) and improved source-level debugging.
GnuCOBOL 3.1.rc-1 — pre-release
Released 30 June 2020
GnuCOBOL 3.1.0-rc1 is a pre-release to test and showcase new features in GnuCOBOL, including:
- XML GENERATE and JSON GENERATE
- REPORT WRITER module
- indexed files: sparse and split key support
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