To create a live recording

Restriction:
This feature is only supported on the following platforms:
  • Red Hat Linux (x86 and x64)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 SP2 (x64 only)

Additional restrictions apply. For details, see the Reverse Debugging and Live Recording topic in the Known Issues and Restrictions > Problem Determination and Diagnostic Tools section of this documentation.

  1. In the Eclipse IDE, click Run > Run Configurations.

    The Run Configurations dialog box appears.

  2. In the list of configuration types, double-click COBOL Application.
  3. In the right-hand pane, in the Name field, type a name for your run configuration.
  4. On the General tab, supply the following:
    COBOL Project
    The project that contains the program you want to run.
    Connection Properties
    If your project is located on a Visual COBOL Development Hub, specify the connection details for the remote project, and (if applicable) the X Server display details in order to run the program.
    Main Program
    If applicable, ensure that Program is part of project build configuration is checked, and that the name of the build configuration appears in the corresponding field: it should contain your project's output path and main program to be run.
  5. On the Environment tab, define the COB_LIVE_RECORD environment variable:
    1. Click Add.
    2. In the Variable field, type COB_LIVE_RECORD.
    3. In the Value field, type the full path to (optional - default is your Eclipse workspace) and filename prefix for the output file you want the Live Recorder to create when the program runs. For example:
      /home/user/workspace/myrecordings/tictac
      Tip: Optionally, you can also add the COB_LIVE_RECORD_SIZE variable, giving an integer value to represent the amount of memory (in MB) allocated to recording events that will be written to the output file. If this value (or if the variable is not set, the default of 268MB) is exceeded, the buffer is cycled during recording so that the oldest events are removed to make space for the most recent events; therefore, when debugging such a recording file, debugging won't necessarily start at the beginning of the program.
    4. Click OK.
  6. Run the application:
    1. On the Run Configurations dialog box, click Run.
    2. Let the application run until it terminates normally: the live recording file is not created until the application ends.
  7. From a terminal window or file browser, go to the directory specified by the COB_LIVE_RECORD environment variable, and confirm that the output file has been created.

    The output filename takes the following form:

    filePrefix.nnnn.mfr

    Where filePrefix is the filename prefix you specified for the COB_LIVE_RECORD environment variable and nnnn is a generated process ID.