[Info-vax] COBOL, <gack!> again! Return status.

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 9/11/2023 3:01 PM, Brian Schenkenberger wrote:
> How does a COBOL program return a status (ie. R0) to a calling program? 
> I found a reference to RETURN-CODE but compiler balks at that.

Disclaimer: I really don't know Cobol, but the following seems to work:

$ type m.cob
identification division.
program-id.m.
data division.
working-storage section.
01  a       pic 9(9) comp.
01  b       pic 9(9) comp.
01  res     pic 9(9) comp.
01  res2    pic 9(9) display.
procedure division.
main-paragraph.
     move 123 to a
     move 456 to b
     call "ADD2" using a,b giving res
     move res to res2
     display res2
     stop run.
$ cob m
$ type add2.cob
identification division.
program-id.add2.
data division.
working-storage section.
01  res     pic 9(9) comp.
linkage section.
01  a       pic 9(9) comp.
01  b       pic 9(9) comp.
procedure division using a,b giving res.
main-paragraph.
     compute res = a + b.
     end program add2.
$ cob add2
$ link m + add2
$ run m
000000579

Arne