What is OpenCOBOL?

[Anuj Dhawan]

OpenCOBOL

OpenCOBOL is an open-source COBOL compiler. OpenCOBOL implements a substantial part of the COBOL 85 and COBOL 2002 standards, as well as many extensions of the existent COBOL compilers. OpenCOBOL translates COBOL into C and compiles the translated code using the native C compiler. You can build your COBOL programs on various platforms, including Unix/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows.

The compiler is licensed under GNU General Public License.The run-time library is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License.

[Anuj Dhawan]

As I said earlier the compiler for OpenCOBOL is licensed under GNU General Public License. And the run-time library is licensed under GNU Lesser General Public License. Well having said all that -- What that means, anyways!? This is directly from the horse's mouth:

One is allowed to write OpenCOBOL programs that use the libcob run time library the way you like. The closed, proprietary, commercial use of it is allowed and encouraged. You can ship programs in binary form as you wish. Modifications to the compiler itself, MUST provide access to source code and be licensed under the GNU GPL. This ensures that no one is allowed to call modified sources their own, nor deny anyone else the chance to copy and re-distribute the compiler source code, including your local changes.

Please note: any version of the compiler that is configured to use Berkeley DB beyond version 1.85 must abide by the Oracle license and sources of the COBOL programs that use libdb must be shipped with any binaries. OpenCOBOL is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.