Patent ID: 8903965

Claim:
A method, comprising the computer-implemented steps of: receiving, by a network device, a command definition file that defines the syntax of one or more network device configuration commands; receiving, by the network device, a network device configuration command; creating and storing one or more particular objects in a database for one or more argument values of the network device configuration command; receiving, by the network device, a request to re-generate the network device configuration command previously issued to the same network device, wherein the configuration command has one or more parameters, each of which is associated with a value; in response to receiving the request: determining, for the network device configuration command, a pattern that represents a first storage location in the database on the network device for the one or more particular objects associated with the network device configuration command; determining, based on the pattern and a mapping between patterns and storage locations, a second storage location on the network device for a template representing a syntax for the network device configuration command; retrieving from the first and second storage locations on the network device, based on the pattern, both: the template representing the syntax for the network device configuration command, and one or more particular objects containing values for all the one or more parameters; creating a re-generated configuration command, equivalent to the previously issued network device configuration command, by substituting the values of the one or more objects into the template; wherein the method is performed by one or more network devices.