Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

> Any tips for doing something like this with the existing tool?

Not possible the case you exactly describe it.
(Although this feature has been requested for many years and I haven't tried the latest version of msi)

But...

I assume that your intent is to build a db file (i.e. use dbLoadTemplate).
In that case, they are specific shell tricks (i.e. how template and substitution files are built)
and iocsh/iocinit tricks (i.e. how the files are used to populate the EPICS database).

Can you show us your real template? and possible substitution entries?

--
Emmanuel