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JULY 29, 2026
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cobol

Accept NUL in COBOL comments.

COBOL front-end now ignores NUL characters within comments.

The GNU COBOL front-end has been updated to tolerate NUL characters within comments. Previously, a NUL character would cause a compilation error, but this change ensures that comments containing NULs are processed without issue.

In Details

Enhances the COBOL lexer by allowing NUL characters within comments, preventing compilation failures. This is achieved by introducing a sanitize_nul function in lexio.cc and lexio.h.

For Context
NUL
The null character, represented as '\0' or ASCII value 0. It is often used as a string terminator in C but can appear in other contexts.
Filed Under: cobollexerbugfix