VMS Help Lexicals, F$MESSAGE, Arguments  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

 status-code

    Specifies the status code for which you are requesting error
    message text. You must specify the status code as an integer
    expression.

 message-component-list

    Specifies the system message component for which information is
    to be returned. If this parameter is null or unspecified, then
    all system message components are returned.

    The following table describes the valid system message component
    keywords:

    Component
    Keyword        Information Returned

    FACILITY       Facility name
    SEVERITY       Severity level indicator
    IDENT          Abbreviation of message text
    TEXT           Explanation of message

    Note that when the FACILITY, SEVERITY, and IDENT code keywords
    are specified (individually or in combination), the resulting
    message code is prefaced with the percent (%)  character. The
    individual parts of the message code are separated by hyphens
    when multiple code keywords are specified.

    When only the TEXT keyword is specified, the resulting text
    is not prefaced with any character. When the TEXT keyword is
    specified with the FACILITY, SEVERITY, or IDENT code keyword,
    the message code is separated from the text by a combination of a
    comma and a blank (,  ).