create compile listing from cobol program load

t5590ag · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:19 pm

hi all,

i have lost some copybook members. they were deleted by mistake, maybe years back.
as of now programs run fine in production.
but they cannot be debugged/tested as i cannot compile them again due to missing copybooks.

is it possible to create a compile listing from load member of the cobol program, kind of reverse engineering.

Pandora-Box · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:30 pm

So copybooks are deleted and compile listing are not stored at all?

Did you search across all level your copybook library available in your system?

I would suggest you to talk to your Admin about this

Akatsukami · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:35 pm

t5590ag · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:59 pm

cannot be recovered systematically in any way. checked at all levels and all libraries.

@ Akatsukami, what kind of manual effort it would be, in that case i will see if its worth it or not.

Akatsukami · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:11 pm

dick scherrer · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:14 pm

Hello,

Suggest you look at the data, map the fields, and re-source the "copybooks".

Then use the newly created copybook(s), recompile with a different nane, and test. Compare the outputs.

Nic Clouston · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:45 pm

How about looking at your oldest source library backups?

Bill O'Boyle · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 9:47 pm

There's a company in the Atlanta-area who specialize in creating source listings from load modules -

www.source-recovery.com/

HTH....

Bill Woodger · Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 10:29 pm

Your Audit procedures may require preservation of source such that systems as-at reporting periods could be re-created. So, as NicC suggests, there may be a number of back-ups that you don't know about, but someone should.

The Source Recovery Company are very good. Get a quote, and balance against your need.

If doing it yourselves, find a "disassembler" and use that on the object code in question.

How many copybooks are missing? More than one from the same program? Sounds odd. Other programs must be affected (else the code wouldn't have been in a copybook). Might give you extra information, and you need to find them anyway. More than only copybook missing is a bit mch for "accidental".

Anuj Dhawan · Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 3:56 pm

That's a kind of "reverse-engineering" and there are quite a good number of companies who have this profession as their bread and butter - which means it's not easily doable without investing in pay-for-products. (and I'm not sure how successfull they get in this.)

OTOH, you might try AMBLIST. AMBLIST can be used to verify an object module, map CSECTs within a load module, verify the contents of the nucleus, trace modifications to the executable code within a CSECT, and map link pack areas. And perhaps, you might need to write a REXX to make you get "a source code" from the logs AMBLIST will generate for you. I've not tried it much BUT even if the you get a "source code", it will not be (and it can not be) the original source code using which the load was generated - how would 'some program' know the variable names from the load module or any unused variables which might be present in the "original source code".