Shell Programming and Scripting

Is there a way, when writing a script, so that although you may go to the next line in the script, it will not be interpreted that way. This could be useful using su (the case where I have the problem) so like ive got something like this:

su - user "-c command1; command2; command3; command4"

And for readability purposes you wanted to break it up into 4 lines so like:

su -user "-c command1;
command2;
command3;
command4"

How could I make this work?

Thanks

Code:

$ su - root -c "echo foo
> echo bar
> echo something else
> "

Cheers
ZB

Use the line continue option....
eg
#su - user -c "command1\
command2\
command3\
command4"
Pad it out if in a shell script so it looks neater....

Incorrect. The line continuation character is not what you want here.

Code:

$ su - root -c "echo foo\
> echo bar\
> echo something else"
Password:
fooecho barecho something else

Cheers
ZB

Slight syntax error for got the ";"
#su - user -c "command1;\
command2;\
command3;\
command4"

But it works

Dont understand the echos...I tried it and all it did was printed string versions of the commands, instead of running the commands..the backslash solution, however, worked beautifully

The echos were just example commands.......