CICS Precompile Process

Precompile is the full journey of a CICS COBOL program from source code to a load module that CICS can run. It has three build steps, in a fixed order, followed by a definition step in CICS itself.

The steps in order

• Step 1 - CICS translator (DFHECP1$): checks EXEC CICS syntax and converts it to plain COBOL CALLs.
• Step 2 - COBOL compiler (IGYCRCTL): compiles the translated source into an object module.
• Step 3 - Linkage editor (IEWL): binds the object module into a load module.
• Step 4 - Install: place the load module in a CICS load library, define the program in the PPT, and NEWCOPY it.

Why the order matters

• Each step feeds the next: translator output is the compiler's input, and the object module is the linker's input.
• If the translator fails, the compile and link steps must be skipped with COND parameters.
• After every recompile you must link again and NEWCOPY the program in CICS, or the old copy keeps running.
• The load library must be in the CICS region's DFHRPL concatenation, or CICS cannot find the program.