PI45379: THE BY CONTENT TEMPORARY FOR A PARAMETER IS NOT REUSED FOR LATER CALLS WITH THE SAME PARAMETER, INCREASING STACK FRAME SIZE.

Obtain the fix for this APAR.

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• For a parameter passed BY CONTENT, the item being passed is
  copied to a temporary, and the temporary is then effectively
  passed BY REFERENCE.
  
  Earlier versions of COBOL allocated/freed the temporary on the
  heap on a per call basis. COBOL v5+ uses temporaries on the
  stack (ie. in local-storage) as this has no additional
  allocation/free overhead.
  
  However, each call was being assigned its own BY CONTENT
  temporaries, which can significantly inflate the stack
  requirements if the BY CONTENT parameters are large or there are
  many such calls. This change will allow the temporaries to be
  reused, significantly reducing the stack requirements.
  
  Note that having the BY CONTENT temporaries on the stack can
  still cause space problems if running STACK(,,BELOW), even after
  this change.
  

Local fix

• Make explicit copies of the BY CONTENT parameters in
  working-storage, and pass the copies BY REFERENCE. This doesn't
  support IS RECURSIVE programs however.
  

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED: Enterprise COBOL V5.2 users who pass many    *
  *                 large data items BY CONTENT on multiple      *
  *                 calls.                                       *
  *                                                              *
  ****************************************************************
  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION: Possible runtime abend if there is not  *
  *                      enough stack memory available for a     *
  *                      program.                                *
  *                                                              *
  ****************************************************************
  * RECOMMENDATION: Apply provided service.                      *
  *                                                              *
  ****************************************************************
  The compiler was creating temp space on the stack for parameters
  passed BY CONTENT but was not properly reusing the space between
  different calls.
  

Problem conclusion

• The compiler was updated to reuse the temp space on the stack
  for parameters between calls in order to reduce stack memory
  usage.
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

  PI44873

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Modules/Macros

• IGYCCBE
  

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  ENT COBOL FOR Z

• Fixed component ID

  5655W3200

Applicable component levels

• R520 PSY UI29671

     UP15/08/04 P F508

Fix is available

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