Manta to support dynamic calls in COBOL Scanner

Background

Assume there are two COBOL files (parent.cbl and child.cbl)

In parent.cbl we see below lines

// variable DATESUB contains child.cbl

77 DATESUB PIC X(08) VALUE 'child '.

// parent calls child using variable DATESUB

CALL DATESUB USING DATESUB-PASSAREA END-CALL.

When Manta scans such files, it fails to resolve the dynamic call (CALL DATESUB) and throws the error:
MISSING_CALL_PROGRAM_NAMES_CONFIG_ENTRY
with a suggested fix:
parent;DATESUB;child

Manta has a manual solution to this problem, which involves adding an entry to the file cobolCallProgramNames.csv

Problem

• We currently have 2,888 such errors in the scan logs.

• Fixing them requires manually updating cobolCallProgramNames.csv with mappings, which is time-consuming and error-prone.

• In Manta DEV, ~90% of COBOL programs are impacted by this issue, meaning we lose significant lineage visibility.

Opportunity

If Manta could automatically detect and resolve these dynamic calls by:

• Identifying the variable used in the CALL statement,

• Mapping it to the actual program name,

• And updating the CSV file at runtime,

…then we could eliminate the majority of parsing errors and achieve complete lineage for COBOL applications.

Who Benefits

• Manta users scanning COBOL files, especially in large enterprise environments.

• Data lineage and governance teams, who rely on accurate parsing for impact analysis and traceability.

IBM Case: TS019613539 (describes customer specific logs that cannot be discussed in this IDEA)