Software Requirements

Eclipse requirements

  • Visual COBOL installs the 64-bit Eclipse IDE by default and requires a 64-bit Java installation.
  • On SUSE 12, you can only install and use the 64-bit version of Visual COBOL.
  • On other platforms, Visual COBOL supports both the 32-bit and the 64-bit Eclipse. You can use the 64-bit Eclipse to create both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
  • The setup file installs Visual COBOL and the 64-bit Eclipse 4.7. After the installation, you can install Visual COBOL as a plug-in into other Eclipse installations available on the same machine. The supported versions are 4.6, 4.7, and 4.8 (requires Visual COBOL 4.0 Patch Update 4 or later) for both the 32-bit and the 64-bit Eclipse. See Installing Visual COBOL into other instances of Eclipse.
    Note: On Red Hat platforms, you need Red Hat 7 or later, if you want to install Visual COBOL into Eclipse 4.8.

Other software requirements

Before installing this product, you must have the following software installed on your computer:

  • The unzip utility is required by the setup file.
  • The pax archiving utility is required by the setup file. Pax is distributed with most UNIX/Linux systems but, if it is missing, you must install it separately. To verify pax is installed, run pax --help or pax --version at the command line.
  • Required libraries - the 32-bit libraries listed below are required on both 32-bit and on 64-bit Operating Systems for this product to install and work correctly.

    If installing on a 64-bit OS, the 32-bit libraries are not installed by default and must be installed before you start the installation.

    Library 32-bit Library Name 64-bit Library Name Platform
    s390 SUSE 12¹ Red Hat 6.x Red Hat 7
    glibc glibc-*.i686 glibc-*.x86_64 glibc-*.s390 X X
    libgcc libgcc-*.i686 libgcc-*.x86_64 libgcc-*.s390 X X
    libstdc++ libstdc++-*.i686 libstdc++-*.x86_64 libstdc++-*.s390 X X
    glibc-locale glibc-locale-32bit glibc-locale-2 N/A X
    gtk2 N/A libgtk-2_0-0-2 N/A X
    gtk2 N/A gtk2-tools-2 N/A X
    gtk2 N/A libXcomposite1-0 N/A X
    gtk2 N/A libgdk_pixbuf-2_0-0-2 N/A X
    gtk2 N/A gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders-2 N/A X
    gtk2 N/A libjasper1-1 N/A X
    gtk2 N/A gtk2-*.x86_64 N/A X X
    gtk2-x11 N/A libgthread-2_0-0-2 N/A X
    libXtst N/A libXtst6-1 N/A X
    libXtst N/A libXtst-*.x86_64 N/A X X
    glibc-devel glibc-devel-*.i686 glibc-devel-*.x86_64 N/A X X
    PackageKit-gtk N/A PackageKit-gtk-module-*.x86_64 N/A X
    PackageKit-gtk3 N/A PackageKit-gtk3-module-*.x86_64 N/A X
    gtk2-engines N/A gtk2-engines.*.x86_64 N/A X
    libcanberra-gtk2 N/A libcanberra-gtk2-*.x86_64 N/A X X
    webkitgtk N/A webkitgtk.x86_64 N/A X
    webkitgtk3 N/A webkitgtk3.x86_64 N/A X
    xterm Any version Any version Any version X X X
    unzip Any version Any version Any version X X X
    libgnome N/A libgnome.x86_64 N/A X X
    gcc2 gcc*.i686 gcc*x86_64 X X X X
    Note:
    • ¹ On SuSe 12, you can only install the 64-bit version of Visual COBOL and you only need the 64-bit versions of the required libraries.
    • * Additional libraries required to use the core_on_error runtime variable. The gdb packages (for the GNU Project Debugger) can be installed from the install media for your OS.
    • 2 On Red Hat these libraries are required to enable COBOL to compile.
    • Libraries marked with an 'X' are not included in the platform and need to be installed separately.

    Visit the Red Hat Web site for more information.

  • Xterm, the terminal emulator for the X Window System, is part of your UNIX/Linux distribution but is not installed by default. Use your UNIX/Linux installation media to install it.
  • Oracle's Java Platform (64-bit) version 1.8 or later, or AdoptOpenJDK's OpenJDK 8 (64-bit) are required to run the Eclipse IDE. The recommended minimum version is Java 1.8.162 (64-bit), which the Windows product installation will install if it detects an older version. Oracle's implementation of Java 7, 8 (32 or 64-bit versions), and Java 9 (64-bit version only), and AdoptOpenJDK's OpenJDK 8 are supported for executing JVM COBOL code, and for native COBOL and Java interoperability. You can download Oracle's Java from Oracle's Web site and install it anywhere on your machine. Alternatively, you can download AdoptOpenJDK's OpenJDK 8 with Hotspot from AdoptOpenJDK's Web site and unpack the archive anywhere on your machine.

Before you start the installation, you need to set the environment as follows:

  • You need to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable. When installing the product, set this variable to a 64-bit Java installation or the installation terminates. For example, execute the following:
    export JAVA_HOME=java_install_dir

    where java_install_dir is the path to the JAVA installation directory such as /usr/java/javan.n

  • You need to add $JAVA_HOME/bin to your system PATH variable. To do this, execute:
    export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
  • You need to set the LANG environment variable to pick up localized messages. The LANG settings are English and Japanese only.
Important: For local servers, you do not need to install the Micro Focus License Administration tool separately, as the setup file installs a new Visual COBOL client and a new licensing server on the same machine.

If you have a network server, you must update the license server before installing the product as the client is not able to communicate with license servers of versions older than 10000.2.660. On Windows, you can check the version of your license server by clicking Help > About in the Micro Focus License Administration tool. To check the version of the license server on UNIX, run /var/microfocuslicensing/bin/mfcesver or /var/microfocuslicensing/bin/cesadmintool.sh.

If Micro Focus License Manager version 10000.2.02070 or older is installed, it must be uninstalled before the product installation or upgrade can continue.

You can download the new version of the license server software from the Micro Focus SupportLine Web site: http://supportline.microfocus.com.