With Cobsql you can pass directives to Oracle Pro*Cobol pre-compiler. This is done by including the Pro*Cobol directive(s) after the end-cobsql (or end-c) directive. So for example:
p(Cobsql) verbose end-cobsql comp5=yes endp
Is the way that you pass the comp5=yes directive on the command line to Pro*Cobol. So to get the checker (ie MF compiler), Cobsql and Pro*Cobol to understand variable length source code, use:
p(Cobsql) verbose end-c format=variable endp
The $set sourceformat(variable) only tells the checker and Cobsql that you are using variable length source code.
Note: You may not have done this with the previous version because this might have been set in Cobsql.dir file, your cobol.dir or the Pro*Cobol configuration file (I think it’s pcbcfg.cfg).