Can I spread commands over multiple lines?

tphyahoo · #1 (**permalink**) 06-07-2006

Below an example of what I mean. The first attempt does what I want; the second doesn't, because bash assumes a line break means the end of an individual "command unix". Is there some way that I can convince bash to parse out, eg, to the closing parenthesis?

I'm thinking this would allow for neater looking scripts, specially if there are a lot of obscure parameters being passed in with hyphens.

Thanks!

Code:

$ls -l #l flag gives more output
insgesamt 4
drwxr-xr-x  2 hartmann users 144 2006-06-07 14:57 a
drwxr-xr-x  2 hartmann users 144 2006-06-07 14:57 b
-rwxr--r--  1 hartmann users 546 2006-06-07 15:01 diffem.pl
$( ls
> -l # l flag gives more output
> )
a  b  diffem.pl
bash: -l: command not found
$

Glenn Arndt · #2 (**permalink**) 06-07-2006

Use a backslash for line continuation:

Code:

ls \
-l

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