Chapter 9. Debugging; Types Of Messages - IBM 5280 Programmer's Manual

Compiler Messages
Types of Messages
Chapter 9. Debugging
This chapter contains information to aid you in debugging a COBOL
program. Topics covered include:
• Compiler messages, which indicate syntax and other errors found in your
program during compilation
• Compiler Abends and their causes
• Program error messages, which are caused by logic error in your
program and which are issued during execution of the program on the
5280
• COBOL debugging language, which you can write in your source
program as an aid in isolating and correcting program errors
The primary means for locating errors in the source program is through the
diagnostic messages produced by the compiler. (If you need a list of all the
possible messages the compiler can generate, use the FLUSHERR option as
described in Chapter 7.)
Compiler messages are generally the result of violating the rules of the
COBOL language as defined in the 5280 COBOL Language Reference. The
compiler issues several types of messages in varying degrees of severity.
The compiler can issue five types of messages:
• Information Messages
• Warning Messages
• Error Messages
• Severe Error Messages
• Unrecoverable Error Messages
Information (I) messages call attention to possible inefficiencies in the object
module or give other information generated by the compiler that may be of
interest.
Warning (W) messages call attention to possible errors, although the
statements to which they refer are syntactically valid.
Error (E) messages indicate an error that the compiler can correct with a high
degree of confidence that program execution will be correct.
Severe (S) error messages indicate errors that cannot be corrected with any
degree of confidence by the compiler. Execution will almost certainly fail or
produce incorrect results.
Unrecoverable (U) error messages indicate errors that caused the compiler to
terminate compilation of the program, or that the compiler detected errors
that would make the resulting load module unexecutable.
You determine the types of error messages the compiler can issue by the
specification you make with the FLAG option at compilation. See Chapter 7
Chapter 9. Debugging 9- I