Korn Shell Programming by Example

Line Continuation

Line continuation is the capability to have a command span more than one line. Two ways of causing a line continuation are available. The first was done accidentally earlier in the chapter; this method is not recommended. It is done by not closing a quote:

$ echo 'hell
> o world
> this
> is line
> continuation the
> non-
> recommended
> way!'
hell
o world
this
is line
continuation the
non-
recommended
way!

This happens because the newline character loses its specialness within the single quotes. This means that instead of signifying that the user is ready to submit a command for processing, the user wants to have the new line as part of the string. Here's the other method:

 $ echo Hell\ > o world \ > this \ > is line \ > continuation ...