VMS Help CMS, SHOW, GENERATION, Qualifiers, /FORMAT="string"  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    Controls whether the output of the SHOW GENERATION command is
    formatted. You can use the /FORMAT qualifier in combination
    with the /OUTPUT qualifier to set up a command file. With this
    command file, you can execute a CMS command or a DCL command on a
    specified set of elements (such as all elements in a class).

    The format string can contain printing characters; within the
    format string, CMS recognizes #E (and #e) as the element format
    parameter, and #G (and #g) as the generation number format
    parameter. For each line of output (one line per generation),
    CMS displays the format string and replaces each occurrence of #E
    or #G with the element name or generation number, respectively.
    To include a number sign in the output line, type it twice (##).
    When you specify the /FORMAT qualifier, CMS does not generate the
    heading normally produced by the SHOW GENERATION command.

    To set up a command file, you specify a format string consisting
    of a command, including the dollar sign ($) prompt and a
    format parameter (#E or #G) (for example, /FORMAT="$ CMS FETCH
    #E/GENERATION=#G"). Use the /OUTPUT qualifier to direct the output
    to a command file. When you execute the SHOW GENERATION command
    with these qualifiers, CMS creates a command file containing a
    list of FETCH commands that use each element in the denoted set as
    parameters.