VMS Help CMS, RETRIEVE, ARCHIVE, Description  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    The RETRIEVE ARCHIVE command retrieves one or more generations of
    an element from one or more archive files.  By default, CMS
    retrieves the highest numbered generation from the archive file
    and places a copy of the generation in your default directory
    with the same file name and type as the element whose generation
    was originally deleted (unless you specify another name or location
    with the /OUTPUT qualifier).  You can indicate a specific generation
    to be retrieved with the /GENERATION qualifier.  CMS creates one
    file for each retrieved generation.  You do not need to have a
    library currently set to use this command, because the RETRIEVE
    ARCHIVE command does not interact with the CMS library.