[NTLUG:Discuss] vendor problem

[Richard Cobbe]

Lo, on Thursday, May 17, Steve Jackson did write:

> I just purchased a COBOL (don't dog me out, it's for some legacy apps that
> we run) runtime/compiler from Liant software for Linux.  I tried running the
> executables on my Linux machine (SuSE 6.3) and got the message:
> 
> bash: ./rmcobol: No such file or directory
> 
> Yes, I used the right path.  Yes, the file is in my current directory.  Yes,
> it has execute permission.

What does `file rmcobol' say?  (If rmcobol is a symlink, follow the link
and run file again.)  How about `ldd rmcobol'?

> 
> I've seen this before and have tracked it to the binary being incompatible
> with the current system (libraries, whatever).  So, I loaded up SuSE 7.1
> with kernel 2.4.2 thinking that maybe I needed the latest stuff to run this
> (I needed to update anyway).  Well, I still got the same message.

Well, if by `library incompatibility', you mean that the app requires a
different version of, e.g., libc than is installed on your system, you will
likely get a different error message---typically something about the loader
(ld.linux.so) not being able to find the appropriate library file, or maybe
the loader complaining about not being able to resolve a symbol.  It's
usually more informative (to programmers, at least) than "no such file or
directory."

I've never experienced a kernel version mismatch before, so it's possible
that you might get the error that you experienced.  If, however, tech
support claims that RH 5 and 6 are supported, I doubt kernel 2.4 is going
to be necessary.

Richard