In most cases, we don't use a command term in isolation — we use it at the start of a longer string that may contain various keywords, parameters and values. We often refer to the whole string as a 'command', although to be more precise we may refer to it as the command string.

A complete command string for a configuration in Vyatta NOS often looks something like this:

command keyword1 keyword2 <value2> keyword3 keyword4 <value4>

(Notice that some keywords stand alone, while others form a keyword-value pair.)

Such configuration command strings must conform to the configuration hierarchy — that is, they specify a configuration path.