[SOLVED] Resolving MinGW Error with GnuCOBOL on Windows

I am not certain whether this is a MinGW issue, or if there's some problem with the way that GnuCOBOL's cobc is calling the C compiler. I've looked through the manual, but I'm not seeing anything there to suggest I'm doing anything wrong here. Of course that doesn't mean I'm not, but if I am, I am not aware of it.

System Info

I'm working on Windows 11 Pro.

I installed GnuCOBOL through chocolatey. Here is the output from cobc --version:

cobc (GnuCOBOL) 3.2.0
Copyright (C) 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Keisuke Nishida, Roger While, Ron Norman, Simon Sobisch, Edward Hart
Built     Jul 28 2023 19:10:09
Packaged  Jul 28 2023 17:02:56 UTC
C version (MinGW) "9.2.0"

I also installed the C compiler from chocolatey, and here is the output from gcc --version:

gcc.exe (x86_64-posix-seh-rev0, Built by MinGW-Builds project) 13.2.0
Copyright (C) 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

I am editing in VS Code but I am not working with any extensions, and I am trying to compile from a Powershell session. For all intents and purposes, I may as well be editing in Notepad.

Code

I am trying to compile this simple program:

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM-ID. HELLO-WORLD.
DATA DIVISION.
    WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
        77 X PIC 99.
        77 Y PIC 99.
        77 Z PIC 99.
PROCEDURE DIVISION.
    SET X TO 10.
    SET Y TO 25.
    ADD X Y GIVING Z.
    DISPLAY "X + Y = "Z.
STOP RUN.

Some of you may recognize it from JDoodle as the default example COBOL program, and it compiles and runs fine there; here's the output when run from JDoodle:

X + Y = 35

Problem

However, when I try to run cobc -x hello.cbl in the same directory as hello.cbl, I see:

hello.cbl:1: note: free format detected
    1 > IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
    2 | PROGRAM-ID. HELLO-WORLD.
    3 | DATA DIVISION.
In file included from C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/crtdefs.h:10,
                 from C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/stddef.h:7,
                 from C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/13.2.0/include/stddef.h:1,
                 from C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\gnucobol\tools\include/string.h:53,
                 from C:\Users\[REDACTED]\AppData\Local\Temp\cob20568_0.c:8:
C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/corecrt.h:35:18: error: expected ';' before 'typedef'
   35 | __MINGW_EXTENSION typedef unsigned __int64 size_t;
      |                  ^~~~~~~~
      |                  ;
C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/corecrt.h:45:18: error: expected ';' before 'typedef'
   45 | __MINGW_EXTENSION typedef __int64 ssize_t;
      |                  ^~~~~~~~
      |                  ;
C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/corecrt.h:63:18: error: expected ';' before 'typedef'
   63 | __MINGW_EXTENSION typedef __int64 intptr_t;
      |                  ^~~~~~~~
      |                  ;
C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/corecrt.h:76:18: error: expected ';' before 'typedef'
   76 | __MINGW_EXTENSION typedef unsigned __int64 uintptr_t;
      |                  ^~~~~~~~
      |                  ;
C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/corecrt.h:89:18: error: expected ';' before 'typedef'
   89 | __MINGW_EXTENSION typedef __int64 ptrdiff_t;
      |                  ^~~~~~~~
      |                  ;
C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/corecrt.h:124:18: error: expected ';' before 'typedef'
  124 | __MINGW_EXTENSION typedef __int64 __time64_t;
      |                  ^~~~~~~~
      |                  ;

I did go into corecrt.h and confirm that each instance of __MINGW_EXTENSION typedef... does exist. I tried correcting these six lines to __MINGW_EXTENSION; typedef... but I did not change anything else.

After making that change, I again tried to run cobc -x hello.cbl and this time got:

hello.cbl:1: note: free format detected
    1 > IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
    2 | PROGRAM-ID. HELLO-WORLD.
    3 | DATA DIVISION.
C:/ProgramData/mingw64/mingw64/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/13.2.0/../../../../x86_64-w64-mingw32/bin/ld.exe: cannot find /LIBPATH:C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\gnucobol\tools\lib\libcob.lib: Invalid argument
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status

I am a professional developer but I have absolutely no C programming experience. I am just trying to familiarize myself with COBOL for fun. Clearly, I'm having some C compiler issues, but I cannot find anything online specific to GnuCOBOL or to the specific version of MinGW that I've installed. I am finding loads of general C debugging advice, but I am not sure how to (or if I should) apply that guidance to the MinGW version I have installed. I feel that I have gone off the path entirely when I find myself debugging the files internal to that package.

Has anyone else here seen this issue? If you have, do you have any guidance?

Also, should I not try COBOL before having a go at C?

I plan on just using JDoodle for now, but I would like to get this working locally if possible.

EDIT: Thanks to @simon-sobisch's extremely helpful answer, I was able to resolve the issue, but I did have to take some extra steps.

First, GnuCOBOL does come with its own compiler but chocolatey didn't put it on PATH, apparently. I had to manually add it to PATH. At least of this writing, it's under C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\gnucobol\tools\bin.

Per the linked SourceFourge forum post, I did have to edit COB_LIB_PATH and COB_LIBS, and I had to create (not edit) COB_LIBRARY_PATH, like so:

PS C:\Users\[REDACTED]\repos\cobol> gci env:* | Where-Object {$_.Name -like 'COB_*'}

Name                           Value
----                           -----
COB_LIB_PATH                   -L"C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\gnucobol\tools\lib"
COB_LIBS                       -lcob
COB_CONFIG_DIR                 C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\gnucobol\tools\config
COB_LIBRARY_PATH               /LIBPATH:"C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\gnucobol\tools\extras"
COB_CFLAGS                     -I"C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\gnucobol\tools\include"

And, success!

PS C:\Users\[REDACTED]\repos\cobol> cobc -x hello.cbl
hello.cbl:1: note: free format detected
    1 > IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
    2 | PROGRAM-ID. HELLO-WORLD.
    3 | DATA DIVISION.
PS C:\Users\[REDACTED]\repos\cobol> .\hello.exe
X + Y = 35