System prerequisites
Ensure that your system meets all prerequisites before installing the product. Failure to meet the prerequisites causes the installation or configuration of the compiler to fail.
The requirements for installing COBOL for Linux® on x86 1.2 are listed below.
Supported platforms
You can use any of the following little endian operating systems on compatible x86-64 servers to run COBOL for Linux on x86 1.2 and its generated object programs:
- Red Hat® Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.5 or later (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.0 or later (64-bit only)
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 SP3 or later (64-bit only)
- Ubuntu Server (Ubuntu) 20.04 LTS or 22.04 LTS (32-bit and 64-bit)
Hardware requirements
COBOL for Linux on x86 1.2 and its generated object programs run on any x86_64 processor that supports the avx2 instruction.
It is also recommended that you meet the following requirements:
- Approximately 260 MB for product packages
- Minimum of 2 GB of hard drive space for paging
- Minimum of 512 MB for temporary files
- 2 GB RAM minimum; 4 GB or more RAM recommended
To verify that you have enough hard disk space available, see Verifying the amount of hard disk space available.
Software requirements: required programs
To determine which GNU packages are required to run the compiler on your operating system, consult the relevant table below. To verify that the required packages are installed, see Verifying that the required GNU packages are installed.
Package name | Version requirements | Architecture requirement |
---|---|---|
For installing the compiler and building 64-bit COBOL applications, the following packages are required: | ||
gcc | 8.5.0 | x86_64 |
glibc | 2.28 | x86_64 |
glibc-devel | 2.28 | x86_64 |
libgcc | 8.5.0 | x86_64 |
libstdc++ | 8.5.0 | x86_64 |
To build 32 bit COBOL applications on RHEL 8.5 the following additional packages are required. 32-bit COBOL applications cannot be built on RHEL 9 or later. | ||
glibc.i686 | 2.28 | i686 |
glibc-devel.i686 | 2.28 | i686 |
libgcc.i686 | 8.5.0 | i686 |
libstdc++.i686 | 8.5.0 | i686 |
Package name | Version requirements | Architecture requirement |
---|---|---|
For installing the compiler and building 64-bit COBOL applications, the following packages are required: | ||
gcc | 7.3.0 | x86_64 |
glibc | 2.28 | x86_64 |
glibc-devel | 2.28 | x86_64 |
libgcc_s1 | 12.2 | x86_64 |
libstdc++6 | 12.2 | x86_64 |
Note: 32-bit COBOL applications are not supported on SLES 15.
|
Package name | Version requirements | Architecture requirement |
---|---|---|
For installing the compiler and building 64-bit COBOL applications, the following packages are required: | ||
gcc-multilib | 8.5.0 | amd64 |
gcc | 8.5.0 | amd64 |
libc6-dev | 2.28 | amd64 |
libgcc1 | 8.5.0 | amd64 |
libstdc++6 | 8.5.0 | amd64 |
To build 32 bit COBOL applications on 20.04 or 22.04 LTS the following additional packages are required. | ||
libc6.i386 | 2.28 | i386 |
libc6-dev.i386 | 2.28 | i386 |
libgcc1.i386 | 8.5.0 | i386 |
libstdc++6.i386 | 8.5.0 | i386 |
To view the online documentation for COBOL for Linux on x86 1.2, you need the following environment and tools:
- A graphical desktop environment that supports web browsers and PDF viewers
- A frames-capable HTML browser (to access the IBM® Documentation and other web pages)
- A PDF viewer (to access PDF documentation and licenses)
Software requirements: optional programs
- Db2: COBOL applications that embed EXEC SQL statements
require IBM
Db2 Advanced Enterprise Server Edition for Linux, UNIX, and Windows 11.5 or later.Note: If you are using a Db2 version that is earlier than Db2 11.5.6, you need to contact COBOL.Linux.Trial@ca.ibm.com to get and apply some additional copybook files.
- CICS: COBOL applications that embed EXEC CICS statements require either of the following products:
- TXSeries® for Multiplatforms 9.1 PTF2 and Interim fix 9.1.0.2-TXSeries-Linux-IF052
or laterNote: Only 32-bit programs are supported in TXSeries for Multiplatforms 9.1.
- CICS TX 11.1Notes:
- Only 32-bit programs are supported in CICS TX 11.1.
- Effective 9 August 2024, IBM withdraws from marketing IBM CICS TX Standard (5900-ALU) and IBM CICS TX Advanced (5737-K69).
- TXSeries® for Multiplatforms 9.1 PTF2 and Interim fix 9.1.0.2-TXSeries-Linux-IF052
or later
- MongoDB
To use MongoDB as a filesystem type (FS=MONGO) in your COBOL applications, you require mongo-c-driver 1.23.1 or above. This package is not installed by the COBOL for Linux on x86 1.2 install script. You must install it manually if you intend to use this feature.
MongoDB provides some pre-built packages available via Package Manager such as yum and apt-get. If you do not see a package for the version of Linux you are using, or if you require 32-bit support, you must download the source and build the package locally. Additional details are available at Install libmongoc with a Package Manager.
You will also need to install and configure a MongoDB server. See the MongoDB site (https://www.mongodb.com/) for information on the MongoDB products.
Verifying the amount of hard disk space available
COBOL for Linux on x86 1.2 requires about 150 MB of hard disk storage space.
df -h /opt
df -h installation_path
where installation_path represents the nondefault location.
Verifying that the required GNU packages are installed
If you use the install
utility to install the compiler, you do not need to
manually install the dependencies, because the install
utility uses dnf
(on RHEL),
zypper
(on SLES), or apt-get
(on Ubuntu) to download and
install the dependencies. If you are not using the install
utility, follow the
instructions in this topic to verify the required GNU packages that are installed.
For lists of the required packages and version requirements for each supported Linux distribution, see Software requirements: required programs.
All required packages can be obtained from your OS installation media.
- On RHEL or
SLES
rpm -q package_name
- On Ubuntu
dpkg -l package_name
If the package was installed, this command returns the name and the version number of the package. The version number must be the same as or later than the version required for that package.