Re: [Help-bash] Using single quotes to escape a newline

[Greg Wooledge]

On Wed, Jul 01, 2015 at 05:28:09PM -0700, Michael Convey wrote:
> ???I'm simply trying to wrap a long command, in which I choose points at
> which it wraps, and have it appear to the command as if it were all on one
> line. It sounds like the only way to do this is with \ at the end of each
> line, right????

If you want to break it up at arbitrary points, yes.  That is what the
trailing \ is for.

rsync --some-option --another-option --yet-more-options="here and there" \
  --and --so --on

If you let it break at natural points like | and && and || then you don't
need the \ .

foo bar |
  quux baz |
  awk 'blah'

try --to --do --something --with --a --lot --of --arguments ||
  die "it didn't work"

If you're trying to write a very long STRING instead of a very long COMMAND
then it's totally different, and I would have to see what string you are
trying to write.