ABEND=S0C4 U0000 REASON=00000011 calling COBOL program

Products

• Easytrieve Report Generator

Issue/Introduction

Getting S0C4 abend when Easytrieve program is calling a COBOL program from 50 years ago.

Example:
 12.39.57 JOB19457  IEA995I SYMPTOM DUMP OUTPUT  735
    735             SYSTEM COMPLETION CODE=0C4  REASON CODE=00000011
    735              TIME=12.39.57  SEQ=52112  CPU=0000  ASID=003E
    735              PSW AT TIME OF ERROR  078D2000   0001E09C  ILC 4  INTC 11
    735                ACTIVE MODULE           ADDRESS=00000000_0001E088  OFFSET=00000014
    735                NAME=name of Cobol program
    735                DATA AT PSW  0001E096 - D00C9845  10004374  000496F0
    735                AR/GR 0: 008F85F4/00000118   1: 00000000/0001D0A4
    735                      2: 00000000/98F1752C   3: 00000000/0002201C
    735                      4: 00000000/18F2DBE4   5: 00000000/98F2DBEC
    735                      6: 00000000/0001D090   7: 00000000/0001C26C
    735                      8: 00000000/0001C258   9: 00000000/000223E8
    735                      A: 00000000/00022570   B: 00000000/18F172C0
    735                      C: 00000000/0002201C   D: 00000000/0000CE10
    735                      E: 00000000/00022650   F: 01000002/0001E088    735              END OF SYMPTOM DUMP
 12.39.57 JOB19457  IEF450I ZBMBTGNV XCNV0140 - ABEND=S0C4 U0000 REASON=00000011  736

How can this be resolved?  What parameters could affect this?

Environment

Easytrieve Report Generator, release 11.6

Resolution

The key was learning that the called program was from the 1970s, thereby explaining that ENVIRONMENT N was truly fine as it is not LE COBOL.  The resolution was therefore to check the AMODE parameter.

Confirming it was set to CALL(AMODE31),  changing AMODE31 to N for the option file via the JOB06OP2 JCL in the CBAAJCL library or by adding CALL AMODE24 to the PARM statement of this particular program resolved the problem. 

Documentation link for the AMODE31/AMODE24 parameter is documented via this link:
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/ca-mainframe-software/devops/ca-easytrieve-report-generator/11-6/installing/install-easytrieve-for-z-os/configuring/configure-your-system/updating-the-table/execution-options.html#concept.dita_e75dc3c9cc7a0cfbe2350919fb8ef28e3697e092_amode31AMODE31zOSonly

Had there not been a successful override on the PARM statement, the solution would have included creating a second option file with AMODE31 N and added an //EZOPTBL DD statement to the JCL of the program and also ensured via JOB06OP1 that the correct option file is still linked into the EZTINI member of the CBAALOAD library.