VMS Help APPEND, Qualifiers, /EXCLUDE  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

       /EXCLUDE=(filespec[,...])

    Excludes the specified files from the append operation.
    You can include a directory but not a device in the file
    specification. Wildcard characters (* and %) are allowed in the
    file specification. However, you cannot use relative version
    numbers to exclude a specific version. If you specify only one
    file, you can omit the parentheses.