To link to copybooks or sources outside the project

Important: Linked resources are an Eclipse concept and are supported for COBOL projects, but Micro Focus recommends you use project dependencies where possible, and create projects to contain the resources and define an appropriate dependency between them.

You can link to individual source files and to folders containing sources. You can specify absolute paths to the sources. Alternatively, you can use a variable to define a path and then you can link to sources using a relative path.

Tip: You can prevent linked folders, copybooks, or other sources from being built by right-clicking them in COBOL Explorer and clicking Build Action > Ignore.

To link to a file

Restriction: You cannot link to an individual copybook file. To link to a copybook, you must link to the containing folder instead.
  1. Click File > New > Other.
  2. Expand General and click File.
  3. Enter the name to use for the linked resource. You can enter an alias.
  4. Click Advanced.
  5. Select Link to file in the file system and browse to the file to link. You can also click Variables and define a path variable, so that you can link to files using a relative path.

To link to a folder containing copybooks

  1. Click File > New > Other.
  2. Expand General and click Folder.
  3. Enter the name to use for the folder containing the copybooks or linked resources. You can enter an alias.
  4. Click Advanced.
  5. Select Link to alternate location and browse to the folder to link. You can also click Variables and define a path variable, so that you can link to folders using a relative path.

To link to a copybook project

You can link to a COBOL Copybook or Remote COBOL Copybook project if one exists in your workspace:

  1. Select your project.
  2. Right-click and select Properties.
  3. Expand Micro Focus > Build Path and click Projects.
  4. Click Add.

    This opens the Select projects dialog box.

  5. Check the copybook or remote copybook projects that you wish to link to.
  6. Click OK twice.
Parent topic: Using source files from outside your project