CBL
Generated by scripts/gen-format-pages.py from docs/data/format-metadata/, FILE_FORMATS.csv and docs/formats-master.csv. Do not edit by hand: change the source, then run the script.
COBOL Preview.
At a glance
| Purpose | COBOL source code, in fixed-column or free form: divisions, sections, paragraphs and data items. |
| Extensions | .cbl |
| Poka parser | poka-cobol |
| Viewer | poka-metadata-card-viewer |
| Depth tier | Metadata card (see Depth tiers) |
| Breadth tier | B4 Summary (see Breadth tiers) |
How much Poka reads
B4 Summary. The container and metadata are read and summarised (counts, properties, structure), but the main content is not rendered.
Confidence: medium (the reviewer read the code). Basis: Reviewed 2026-10-26: read parsers/poka-cobol/src/main.rs (374 lines) and plugin.json in full. The crate has no unit tests and no tests/samples.rs, and the corpus has no .cbl, .cob and .cobol sample, so the tier rests on reading the code. Covers .cbl, .cob and .cobol. The output is a metadata card of counts found by matching text line by line: the divisions present, PROGRAM-ID, author and installation, date written, source and object computer, COPY books, sections, paragraph names, 01-level items, 77- and 88-level items and REDEFINES, PERFORM, DISPLAY and MOVE, IF and EVALUATE, continuation lines and line counts. Judgement: B4, because the structure is summarised but the source itself is never shown.
What Poka does not read
- The source text is not shown: the card carries only counts and a few sample names, with no code view or highlighting
- Constructs are found by matching text line by line, not by parsing, so multi-line declarations, nested or indented definitions and keywords inside strings or comments can be miscounted
- Counts of named items stop where their name list is capped (sections at 32, level 01 items at 32, paragraphs at 64), so a larger file under-reports them
- Files over 64 MiB are cut to the first 64 MiB (the card says so)
- Text that is not UTF-8 is decoded with replacement characters; no other encoding is tried
- COPY books are named but not expanded
Libraries
Libraries Poka uses or has assessed for this format, with the status, licence and language the registry records.
- ProLeap COBOL parser (candidate; MIT; Java; https://github.com/uwol/proleap-cobol-parser) — ANTLR4-based parser producing an AST and semantic graph; tested against the NIST COBOL 85 suite
- tree-sitter-cobol (nolanlwin) (candidate; licence unconfirmed; unknown; https://github.com/nolanlwin/tree-sitter-cobol) — Tree-sitter COBOL-85 grammar; the page loaded did not state the licence
Sources
- parsers/poka-cobol/src/main.rs
- parsers/poka-cobol/plugin.json