The Relativity Designer includes the COBOL FD Importer to import COBOL FDs into a catalog. As part of that process, a Relativity symbol table file (or .rst file) is automatically generated.
A Relativity symbol table file contains one or more file definitions (FDs) extracted from a COBOL source file; you can select which of these FDs to import into the catalog. An .rst file can also be used to populate other catalogs with the same FDs if the COBOL source is not available.
The extraction process extracts information from the file control entry (SELECT clause), file description entry (FD entry), and the associated data description entries for each file described in the COBOL source file, and creates the Relativity symbol table file using this information.
The COBOL FD Importer also extracts information about Working-Storage Section and Linkage Section data description entries, since these may include record description entries of interest to Relativity.
When generating an .rst file from COBOL source, you should only use files that compile cleanly. Also, there are a number of restrictions placed on the source code that can pass through the extraction process; see Extractions Restrictions for details.