[Bug-GnuCOBOL] cobc: Transcend Path Environment variabl GnuCobol Version 3 Release 1 aunder MinGW

[Bruce Zupek]

It is my understanding that GNUCobol will follow entries in the Path environment variable to resolve an application program invoking a .DLL
It is my observation that the Path environment variable is not being traversed in a GNUCobol program referencing a foreign (not germane to GNUCobol) .DLL.

In the example below I have explicitly copied USER32.DLL into the folder where GNUCobol stores .DLL's
I then executed CLIPTEST (which calls several Windows API modules) - execution was successful

I then renamed USER32.DLL to USER32.KEP
I executed CLIPTEST again and GNUCobol was unable to either locate the USER32.DLL or GNUCobol was unable to find the entry point "OpenClipBoard".

Here is the PATH environment variable in effect:
Path=C:\GNUCOBOL\BIN;C:\GNUCOBOL\EXTRAS;C:\GNUCOBOL\LOADLIB;C:\FUJCBL;C:\GNUCOBOL\BIN;C:\MQ\java\lib;C:\GUISPF;C:\IBM3270;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Fujitsu\COBOL;C:\Program Files\Fujitsu NetCOBOL for Windows\;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem

Below is the the \windows\system32 director indicating USER32 is a member of this folder:
c:\Windows\System32>dir user32.dll
Directory of c:\Windows\System32
11/20/2010  09:27 AM         1,008,128 user32.dll
               1 File(s)      1,008,128 bytes

========================================== Test Case =================================================================================
C:\GNUCOBOL\LOADLIB>TESTCLIP                 ===> successful execution when USER32.DLL is in a folder explicitly known to GNUCobol RTS

C:\GNUCOBOL\LOADLIB>REN USER32.DLL *.KEP

C:\GNUCOBOL\LOADLIB>TESTCLIP
libcob: module 'OpenClipboard' not found

C:\GNUCOBOL\LOADLIB>

Is my understanding correct ?

Please advise.
Bruce Zupek