.cblDistinct files in the full Software Heritage archive (2026-06-04 export), dated by first appearance, following Desmazières, Di Cosmo, Lorentz (MSR 2025). Case-aggregated. citation.
Case variants in archive: .CBL (195.6K), .cbl (86.0K), .Cbl (39), .CBl (1), .cBL (1), .cbL (1) — aggregated above.
Study cobol — What is actually in the COBOL extensions on Software Heritage? Report: docs/cobol_swh_study.md · PDF.
Population. 276,831 .cbl, .CBL files in 6,278 repositories.
Sample. share of files — uniform 1 000 contents of the .cbl ∪ .CBL union, content-classified (corpus_estimate.jsonl); share of repositories — 1 000 of 6 278 repositories, one random content each (worklist_div.csv), content-classified.
Each share says how it was estimated (judged sample, PPI over the rule-labelled sample, or tail census); 95 % interval in brackets.
| Language / format | Share of files | Share of repositories |
|---|---|---|
COBOL (programs, copybooks, generated) pl/cobol | 54.4% [51.3–57.5] · judged sample | 92.7% [90.9–94.2] · judged sample |
| synthetic test fixture (WBC_*_FOO.CBL, one GitLab repository) | 40.8% [37.8–43.9] · judged sample | — |
| other text (foreign source, data, docs) | 2.8% [1.9–4.0] · judged sample | 5.3% [4.1–6.9] · judged sample |
| Calibre/ComicRack comic-book reading lists | 1.7% [1.1–2.7] · judged sample | 0.10% [0.0–0.6] · judged sample |
| binary data | 0.30% [0.1–0.9] · judged sample | 1.9% [1.2–2.9] · judged sample |
synthetic test fixture (WBC_*_FOO.CBL, one GitLab repository) (.CBL only) | 58.9% [55.2–62.5] · judged sample | — |
COBOL (programs, copybooks, generated) (.CBL only) pl/cobol | 39.4% [35.8–43.1] · judged sample | 92.6% [83.9–96.8] · judged sample |
other text (foreign source, data, docs) (.CBL only) | 1.2% [0.6–2.3] · judged sample | 4.4% [1.5–12.2] · judged sample |
Calibre/ComicRack comic-book reading lists (.CBL only) | 0.30% [0.1–1.0] · judged sample | — |
binary data (.CBL only) | 0.30% [0.1–1.0] · judged sample | 2.9% [0.8–10.1] · judged sample |
This extension is attributed to COBOL as primary by 1 authoritative claim.
.cbl among their extensions. Strength reflects whether the upstream source treated it as their primary extension.| Language | Source | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| COBOL | wikidata | primary |
| COBOL | linguist | secondary |
.cbl on Wikidata
(property P1195) or in the Wikipedia infobox.
Source: data/derived/external_extension_index.csv.
Click Use as new PL on any row to open the
Add-PL form pre-filled with that entry's name, Wikipedia/Wikidata
URL, and this extension — one submission creates the PL + claim.
| Format | Class (Wikidata P31) | Suggested label | MIME | Notes | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COBOL Source Code File Q127327939 file format | file format | — | — | — | Use as new PL ↗ |
cobol (LLM judges, human reviews) · 2 via fallbackcobol (LLM judges, human reviews) (6)pl/cobol (high) 2026-07-07pl/cobol (low) 2026-07-07pl/cobol (high) 2026-06-17pl/cobol (medium) 2026-07-07pl/cobol (high) 2026-06-17