The File Control Description (FCD) is a data area which contains information about the file in use. For information on the FCD, see the section File Control Description (FCD) in the chapter File Handler API in your File Handling book.
There are two different formats of the FCD that you can directly code in your application; these are known as FCD 2 and FCD 3 (FCD 1 is obsolete and should never be used in your applications). These different FCD formats are supported on the following systems:
| Platform |
FCD Format |
| FCD 3 |
FCD 2 |
| Net Express 5.0 64-bit |
Y |
N |
| Net Express 5.0 32-bit |
Y |
Y |
| Server Express 2.0 64-bit |
Y |
N |
| Server Express 2.0 32-bit |
Y |
Y |
| Server Express 1.1 32-bit |
N |
Y |
| Server Express 1.0 32-bit |
N |
Y |
| Net Express 3.0 and earlier versions |
N |
Y |
| OCDS |
N |
Y |
FCD 2 is not supported on 64-bit COBOL systems. This has the following effects on application conversion:
- Applications that use FCD structures, either through explicit declaration and creation, or by using the syntax CALL program USING filename, have to be converted to handle FCD 3 when compiled and run as a 64-bit application.
- Applications that use the FCDREG directive need to be aware that various data-items including pointers and record sizes within the FCD have different sizes, and that reference modification of these fields results in different values on a 32-bit environment and a 64-bit one.
- The copyfile xfhfcd.cpy has been changed to define an FCD 3 record if the program is compiled with the P64 directive. If the program is not compiled with the P64 directive xfhfcd.cpy, as previously, defines an FCD 2 record. The FCD 3 record is directly and unconditionally defined in the file xfhfcd3.cpy and the FCD 2 record is directly and unconditionally defined in the file xfhfcd2.cpy. For details on the xfhfcd.cpy and xfhfcd2.cpy copyfiles see the chapter File Handler API in your File Handling book
