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icomp — Intelligent COBOL Compiler

icomp is the intelligent compilation tool for Ingenium COBOL source code. It automates dependency analysis, parallel compilation, and DB2 package binding — reducing build times from hours to minutes.

Quick Start​

# Build all changes since last successful build
icomp build

# Compile specific files
icomp comp program1.cbl program2.cbl

# Full recompilation of everything
icomp mass

Commands​

build — Incremental Build (Most Common)​

icomp build

The recommended way to compile. icomp build automatically:

  1. Detects what has changed since the last successful build (the "golden point")
  2. Scans COBOL copybook dependencies to find all impacted programs
  3. Compiles only the affected programs — in parallel
  4. Binds any changed DB2 packages

This is the command triggered by Ctrl+Shift+B in VS Code.

comp — Compile Specific Files​

icomp comp <file1> [file2] [file3] ...

Compiles one or more specific COBOL files. Use this when you want to quickly test a single program without running the full build pipeline.

Example:

icomp comp POLICY01.cbl CLAIM02.cbl

mass — Full Recompilation​

icomp mass

Recompiles every source file from scratch and rebinds all DB2 packages. Use this when:

  • Setting up a new environment
  • The incremental build is producing unexpected results
  • It's been more than 30 days since the last mass compile
warning

Mass compilation takes significantly longer than incremental builds. Only use it when necessary.

bind — Bind DB2 Packages​

icomp bind

Drops and rebinds all DB2 packages. Useful after database schema changes.

git — Pull and Merge from Baseline​

icomp git

Pulls the latest changes from the baseline repository and merges them into your development branch.

golden — View or Set Golden Point​

# View current golden point
icomp golden

# Set a specific golden point
icomp golden <commit-sha>

The golden point marks the last successfully compiled commit. icomp build uses this to determine what has changed.

branch — Show Current Branches​

icomp branch

Displays the current baseline (BSL) and development (DEV) branch names.

list — List Merged Branches​

icomp list

Lists all branches that have been merged since the golden point.

create — Create a Feature Branch​

icomp create <name> <id> <category>

Creates a new feature branch in the development repository with standardized naming.

clean — Clean Build Artifacts​

icomp clean

Removes all compiled outputs, logs, and temporary files.

How Incremental Build Works​

Golden Point (last good build)
        │
        ▼
  ┌─────────────┐
  │  Git Diff    │  What changed since golden point?
  └──────┬──────┘
         │
         ▼
  ┌─────────────┐
  │  Copybook    │  Which programs use the changed copybooks?
  │  Scanner     │
  └──────┬──────┘
         │
         ▼
  ┌─────────────┐
  │  Parallel    │  Compile all impacted programs at once
  │  Compile     │
  └──────┬──────┘
         │
         ▼
  ┌─────────────┐
  │  DB2 Bind    │  Bind changed packages
  └──────┬──────┘
         │
         ▼
  Update golden point ✓

Key Concepts​

Golden Point​

A commit SHA stored in BSL/golden.lst that marks the last successful build. Every icomp build compares against this point to determine what needs recompilation.

Precompiled Programs​

Programs that access DB2 require special compilation options (precompilation). icomp automatically handles this based on the NING_PRECOMPS environment variable.

Parallel Compilation​

icomp uses all available CPU cores for compilation. The number of concurrent workers is controlled by the NING_MAX_WORKERS environment variable.

Single Instance​

Only one icomp instance can run at a time. If you try to start a second instance, it will exit immediately. This prevents conflicting builds.