Activating and Checking for the isCOBOL License

The iscobol.properties file has two main uses: as a license file and as a configuration file for the compiler or the runtime framework.  During installation, the setup asks if the user wants to activate the licenses or skip the activation.

• If the user decides to activate the licenses during the installation, the wizard will create an iscobol.properties license file in C:∖Users\%username% in Windows or $HOME in Unix. 
• If the user chooses to skip the activation, the license will need to be manually put in one of the folders mentioned below. 

isCOBOL looks in multiple places for a license file. The runtime, compiler and other licensed add-ons will look for the license file in the following order:

1. \etc\iscobol.properties in the drive where the working directory is
2. C:\Users\<username>\iscobol.properties (the setup wizard saves licenses here, if you don’t skip activation)
3. iscobol.properties found in the Java Classpath
4. a custom configuration file passed on the command line
5. %ISCOBOL%\iscobol.properties

      Unix/Linux

1. /etc/iscobol.properties
2. $HOME/iscobol.properties
3. iscobol.properties found in the Java Classpath
4. a custom configuration file passed on the command line
5. $ISCOBOL/iscobol.properties

 Users can put all their configuration properties and license information in one file, but we suggest keeping the license information separate.  For example:

iscobol.properties as a License file:

# Company: MyCompnay
# License ID: 123456/5/4/5/permanent
# Expiration Date: none
iscobol.license.YYYY=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
iscobol.compiler.license.YYYY=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

iscobol.properties as a runtime configuration file:

iscobol.file.errors_ok=2
iscobol.file_prefix=⁄path
. . .

iscobol.properties as a compiler configuration file:

iscobol.compiler.regexp="(?i)(STOP)∖∖+(RUN)" "GOBACK"
iscobol.compiler.messagelevel.106=0
iscobol.compiler.messagelevel.154=0
. . .

To see your license information, execute the following command:

iscrun -license

This command will return the location of all iscobol.properties files found in the locations above.  For instance the -license command may find potential license files in two places, and report it like this:  

C:\etc\iscobol.properties: MyCompany##123456=/5/4/5/permanent
C:\Users\User\iscobol.properties: => invalid or missing license

These messages indicate that a license was found in c:\etc\iscobol.properties.  The runtime also found iscobol.properties in the user's folder, but that file didn't contain any license information.

Article ID: 293
Created: June 12, 2018
Last Updated: January 7, 2026
Author: Support KB Author

Online URL: https://support.veryant.com/phpkb/article.php?id=293