RTS 114 errors.

[Ken Mueller]

We are having a serious problem with our Cobol programs. We have 2 servers, 'A' is 10.20, 'B' is 11.0.
Originally our programs were on 'A', compiled with MicroFocus V4.0 B.11.32 and they ran fine. We've since moved the source over to 'B', and compiled with MicroFocus V4.1 B13.40. Nearly all of these programs crash with RTS 114 errors, AKA "Attempt to access item beyond bounds of memory (Signal 10)". If we compile the programs on 'A' and copy the binaries to 'B', they run fine. This is not really an option, though, as 'A' is soon to be retired. The software vendor for our Cobol programs has been attempting to figure what is causing the problem, and is leaning towards a compiler bug. I have attached a snippet showing what the code was that was generating the error and what he did to fix it. The 'before' was perfectly legal syntax, as far as I know (I'm not a Cobol programmer), but the program crashes nevertheless. Is this a known problem? Does anyone have any ideas how we can rectify this situation? The vendor is not willing to go through the hundreds of programs we have to make silly changes.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Ken:

This is pretty vanilla code! I'd check out the Merant (MicroFocus) knowledge base and or escalate with them. There is no reason you should have to re-engineer your code.

http://support.merant.com/websupport/Custom/Knowledge.asp

...JRF...

[Jon McDermott]

We ran into a handful of cases where the compiler got pickier about the syntax of our code base when moving from B.11.32 to B.13.35. You might be seeing something like the same.

Do you have any compiler warnings when you compile your code on B.13.40? Don't forget to check and see if you have warnings turned off.

I have some general writeups on RTS 114 errors that I will upload. The documents are either from HP or Merant, I did not write them. Hopefully these will help you diagnose the cause of your RTS problems.

[eran maor · Accepted solution]

Hi Ken

i m realy no a programer but after looking in out database for this error with the version of the cobol install on the system hp-ux 11.00

i can tell you that you are rigth , its the compiler problem .

if you will install this version :
B.11.30, B.12.26, B.13.26, B.12.35, B.13.35

the problem will not acour .

i know also there is a fix for this problem but the best way is to contact your HP support for opening a case with a programer support that will handle the problem .

[Jon McDermott]

Here's the second file i mentioned in my previous post.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Ken,

Our HR system is written in COBOL and uses the same compiler version on 11.0 (13.40) and has multiple statements within one if statement without problem. I normally stay as far away from that COBOL stuff as possible but I did notice that the techical docs for our HR system and all of the makefiles include cob -N "hpoptimize=0" and warn to always use this option.

This sounds just stupid enough to be a workaround for you.

Good luck, Clay

[Ken Mueller]

Thanks for the replies. I tried the -N switch and compiled a program, but that didn't do the trick. I actually was searching this site yesterday and came across the attachments Jon posted and passed those along to the vendor. Apparently they were already aware of those docs - "Our analysis includes the recommendations provided by HP..." I have placed a call with HP support but have not heard back yet. Unfortunately the longer this goes on the more problems crop up in other areas. I'll assign points soon....

[Jon McDermott]

We had some compile problems - code that compiled under B.13.35 did not compile under B.13.40. Our compile flags included a "-N hpchunk=500000" flag which we removed to resolve the problems.

I'm relaying this information because someone else mentioned compile flags and this problem could be related to compiler flags. I'd suggest reviewing your makefiles and see if there is anything relating to portability, optimization, etc., that might be causing a problem here. Just a hunch though.

[Ken Mueller]

The problem has been solved...apparently the ncg file was corrupt. I put a new version in place and everything ran fine...
Thanks for all responses.