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

       /EXCLUDE=(file-spec[,...])

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