Copybook Location

If you do not keep the copybooks in the same directory as the main source program, you must tell the Compiler where they are, by setting the environment variable COBCPY.

Each COPY statement in your program identifies a copybook to be copied. If the filename in the COPY statement is incomplete, because it lacks either an extension or a path, the Compiler searches for it as follows:

1. In the directory given by the COPY library-name. Note that if the name of the copybook is a qualified filename, that is, it includes the path or directory, the Compiler searches that directory only
2. In the directory containing the main source program being compiled
3. In any directories listed in the COBCPY environment variable, in the order specified

If the COPY statement does not give the extension of the copybook's filename, the Compiler searches for files with extensions given by the directive COPYEXT.