/sys$common/syshlp/helplib.hlb SEARCH, Qualifiers, /FORMAT  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

       /FORMAT=option

    Formats output in one of the following five ways:

    DUMP     Displays all control characters (including <HT>, <CR>,
             and <LF>) and nonprintable characters as ANSI mnemonics.

    NOFF     Replaces control characters in text with ANSI mnemonics
             (for example, Ctrl/C is replaced with <ETX>). The
             terminal formatting characters <HT>, <CR>, <LF>, <VT>
             are passed without change. Form feed characters are
             replaced with <FF>.

    NONULLS  Same as DUMP, but removes all null characters from the
             input file before reformatting. (In dump mode, the null
             character is displayed as <NUL>.) NONULLS is convenient
             when you are searching binary format files, such as EXE
             or OBJ files, that generally contain many zero bytes.

    PASSALL  Moves control and nonprintable characters to the output
             device without translating them. The terminal driver
             cannot send 8-bit characters to the terminal unless SET
             TERMINAL/EIGHT_BIT is already in effect.

             You can use /FORMAT=PASSALL whenever you do not want
             the SEARCH command to substitute the ANSI mnemonic for
             control characters (for example, <BEL> for Ctrl/G).

    TEXT     Replaces control characters in text with ANSI mnemonics
             (for example, Ctrl/C is replaced with <ETX>). The
             terminal formatting characters <HT>, <CR>, <LF>, <VT>,
             and <FF> are passed without change. TEXT is the default
             format.