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GnuCOBOL (formerly OpenCOBOL) is a free, modern COBOL compiler. GnuCOBOL implements a substantial part of the COBOL 85, X/Open COBOL and newer ISO COBOL standards (2002, 2014, 2023), as well as many extensions included in other COBOL compilers (IBM COBOL, MicroFocus COBOL, ACUCOBOL-GT and others).
GnuCOBOL translates COBOL into C and internally compiles the translated code using a native C compiler.
Build COBOL programs on various platforms, including GNU/Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. GnuCOBOL has also been built on HP/UX, z/OS, SPARC, RS6000, AS/400, along with other combinations of machines and operating systems.
Copyright 2001-2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
The cobc compiler is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the FSF; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.
The libcob run time support source tree is licensed under the GNU LGPL.
Features
- a nicely complete implementation of COBOL with nearly seamless C integration
- passing over 9700 of 9748 NIST COBOL 85 test suite tests
- passing over 3700 tests in nearly 1300 internal test groups
- dialect support for COBOL85, X/Open COBOL, COBOL2002, COBOL2014, MicroFocus, IBM, MVS, ACUCOBOL-GT, RM/COBOL, BS2000, GCOS (Bull)
- supports ORGANIZATION INDEXED along with REPORT SECTION, SCREEN SECTION, FUNCTION-ID
- support for JSON GENERATE and XML GENERATE (XML PARSE pending)
- almost full support of the COBOL 2023 Compiler Directing Facility feature set
- EXEC SQL preprocessors available for PostgreSQL, Firebird, ODBC, DB2
- ASCII, EBCDIC, little endian, big endian. A build published for z/OS OMVS/USS
- multiple source level debuggers available (GDB frontends or extensions as well as completely separate projects)
- compiler built with GNU Autotools and GCC, also successfully builds with LLVM clang, VisualStudio or others
- direct access to almost all C libraries, and even more with the C++ base
- multiple screen libraries available including Java (AWT/SWING) and GTK+ based
- code integrating Ada, Guile, Lua, Rexx, Javascript, Python, and others, published
- CGI capable and desktop ready
- compiler and runtime messages translated; English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Serbian, Swedish, Turkish, Dutch, German, more to come
Project Samples
License
GNU Library or Lesser General Public License version 2.0 (LGPLv2), GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPLv2), GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3), GNU Library or Lesser General Public License version 3.0 (LGPLv3)Follow GnuCOBOL
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User Reviews
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GnuCOBOL is a fantastic piece of software. The compiler is mature and very well tested. A free and open-source COBOL compiler is by no means something to be taken for granted — the entire development team deserves high praise for their work. Thank you! I'm currently using GnuCOBOL primarily to learn COBOL, but I wouldn't hesitate to use it in production systems as well. COBOL is a beautifully elegant language, and GnuCOBOL is the cool and stable compiler that brings it to life.
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I started playing around with COBOL for historical/instructional purposes, and I found the GnuCOBOL implementation very good.
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I am a retired software developer with COBOL experience going back to the early 1970s. Because I have used lots of GNU Unix software, including GNU C/C++ compilers and runtime libraries since the mid 1990s, I have great appreciation for the quality of GNU products. That's why I shouldn't have been surprised when I downloaded GNUCobol-3.3, built and installed it without a hitch. Even more impressive, I was able to compile and run a large suite of COBOL source that my company had developed in the 1980s. Most of my COBOL source compiles under GNUCobol and runs without error. I don't care what Richard Stallman says about me. He is the most prolific and brilliant software architect the World has ever known.
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The team did a nice job in implementing a version of COBOL which matches the vast majority (not to say all of them) of MS-COBOL and Microfocus COBOL features. Being a nostalgic, I thought that I would no longer be able to exercise my hobby of programming in a platform like that - and you guys made it happen ! So congratulations for dedicating your off time to this - we, COBOL programmers and former programmers are the ones who benefit from that (not to mention the end users). As a former MS-COBOL 80, Microfocus COBOL and BLIS-COBOL programmer, I strongly recommend GnuCOBOL. And btw, if there is interest in using a screen editor/generator which is able to translate screen layouts into a SCREEN SECTION GnuCOBOL code, stick to EDITEL, a program of my own development also listed in Sourceforge for FREE.Reply from GnuCOBOLEdited 2024-02-04
Thanks for the positive review - just to point out: GnuCOBOL is not primarily about software preservation, it is used every day in production environments including government and banking. The real good thing is that anyone can use the same compiler as they do - at no cost and even with the ability to change things (if you know how to do it, but still). -
I have just started using GnuCobol this year. I am still learning much about the implementation but the support it covers from IBM to MicroFocus and others is just incredible. I wish to thank the team who tirelessly worked on this and I do hope they get their much deserved due for doing this. Amazing!