Cisco IOS - Working With Text Files
Generally when working with a Cisco device's text configuration files, the files are copied to the device using methods like SCP,FTP or TFTP.
However many times I have found myself in a situation where I do not have a server available to me to copy files to/from.
Its also common I cannot create a server due to security restraints or having no available compute resources.
Its also sometimes quicker to create a configuration file on a device instead of copying via other methods.