I understand I can type \
enter at the end of a bash
command line to continue that command in another line. But how can I split a prompt command line — that has already been fully typed — into two?
For example, how can I break this line right before then
without having to cut the remainder off and type it all over again?
$ if true; then ls; fi
Best Answer
A newline character is LF (line feed), a.k.a. Control-J. If you press Ctrl+J, this executes the command
accept-line
, same as the Return key. To insert a literal LF character, press Ctrl+V Ctrl+J. The command Ctrl+V (quoted-insert
) inserts the next character literally. Thus, to split a line, you can enter \ Ctrl+V.If you do this often, you can make it a macro: