43

I have seen this construct in scripts a lot and used it myself, but it bothers me that I can't seem to find it in the documentation.

Example:

[ -f file1 ] &&
[ -f file2 ] &&
echo "Both files exist." ||
echo "One or the other file doesn't exist."

This could also be done with backslashes before the newlines, as mentioned in man bash:

If a \<newline> pair appears,  and  the  backslash  is  not
itself  quoted,  the \<newline> is treated as a line continuation (that
is, it is removed from the input stream and effectively ignored).

Example:

[ -f file1 ] && \
[ -f file2 ] && \
echo "Both files exist." || \
echo "One or the other file doesn't exist."

...but this doesn't seem to be necessary. The first version above works even without the backslashes.

Where can I find this in man bash? (Also, is this bash specific or POSIX compliant?)

Improve this question
3
  • If you’re looking for official bash or POSIX documentation, see Gilles’s answer.   But this is discussed in What are the shell's control and redirection operators? — More observations on ;, &, ( and ).
    – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 5:57
  • @G-Man, I guess that wasn't directed at me? Just for future readers? As I said in the question, "it bothers me that I can't seem to find it in the documentation." I already knew how it works, so this was indeed just a request for the official documentation. :)
    – Wildcard
    Commented Aug 12, 2016 at 6:00
  • Even in the case of arrays, there is an implicit line continuation: names=( Rama Soma<newline> Sita Diya ). Python clearly describes these here but the Bash documentation doesn't seem to.
    – jamadagni
    Commented Jun 1, 2018 at 4:01

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
52

A newline is ignored in a few contexts where there is manifestly an unterminated command. These contexts include after a control operator (&&, ||, |, &, ;, ;;, but not !).

I don't see this documented in the bash manual.

In POSIX, it's specified via the grammar rules. Wherever the rules have linebreak, you can have zero or more line breaks.

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13
  • +1, I didn't knew it worked for the simple pipe ( | ) . I wish we could also put them on the next line, for readability, but it doesn't work that way (if doing that, you need to espace the preceding newline).
    – Olivier Dulac
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 12:49
  • 2
    @OlivierDulac How could that possibly work? When it's processing the current command line, how is it supposed to know that you're planning to type | at the beginning of the next line? Remember, the shell is also used interactively, not just in scripts, and the grammar is the same.
    – Barmar
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 19:43
  • @Barmar : I know, I do know this (wrote compilers at school ^^)... I said "I wish", and it is not a very plausible wish
    – Olivier Dulac
    Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 19:54
  • 1
    @DocSalvager, can you give an example of a logic bug that would help prevent? I have a hard time seeing it....
    – Wildcard
    Commented Jan 9, 2016 at 5:34
  • 2
    @DocSalvager, I wouldn't actually use the code as I wrote it—it was an illustration. Without the last line (the else clause) I would use it that way, though. (For "if this and this then do that" this && this2 && that is fine but for an else clause I'd use an actual if then else fi.)
    – Wildcard
    Commented Jan 13, 2016 at 4:08

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