COBOL CALL vs CICS LINK

Overview

This article compares two approaches for calling programs in COBOL within a CICS environment: the standard COBOL CALL statement and the EXEC CICS LINK command.

Program State Management

• CALL: A called program retains its final state after execution, so subsequent calls find it in that previous condition
• LINK: Programs always initialize to their original state when invoked through CICS LINK

Debugging Considerations

• CALLed programs use GOBACK rather than EXEC CICS RETURN — this does not create a CICS trace entry and complicates troubleshooting
• CALL operations appear in CICS traces only through locate operations, lacking explicit LINK trace entries
• CEDF/CEDX debugging tools don't display EXEC CICS LINK screens, making program transitions harder to identify

Program Hierarchy and Remote Capabilities

• CALL doesn't change logical program levels
• CALLed programs cannot execute remotely or through Distributed Program Link (DPL)
• In a non-LE environment, COBOL CALL can only CALL other COBOL or ASSEMBLER programs

Administrative Visibility

Both approaches generate Program definition entries (PPTTE) visible in CEMT and statistics reporting.

Performance Trade-offs

COBOL CALL executes faster and consumes less storage, but only when programs are called more than twice.