sh script writing help

[Aiza]

Anh Ky Huynh wrote:
> On Sun, 30 May 2010 14:10:36 +0800
> Aiza <aiza21 at comclark.com> wrote:
> 
>> Dan Nelson wrote:
>>> In the last episode (May 30), Aiza said:
>>>> In a .sh type script I have && exerr " very long message gt 250
>>>> char" all on the same line. This is a real pain to edit.
>>>>
>>>> Is there some code a can use to continue this on the next line
>>>> so I can see it on the screen and still have the command
>>>> function? I tried \ with no luck.
>>> \ should work just fine:
>>>
>>> $ echo "long line \
>>> split onto two"
>>> long line split onto two
>>> $
>>>
>>
>> You example works only because the continuation starts at position
>> 1.
>>
>> $   [ -n "${test-name-fowarding}" -o -n "${test-noname}" ] || \
>>      exerr "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\
>>             xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
>> this is for ease of reading the code but will display with a bunch
>> of spaces in the middle of the sentence. The \ works fine bypassing
>> all white space between code not so for white space between the "
>> ".
>>
>> Is there a coding method to get around this?
> 
> Do you try to read your expression from a file?
> 	exerr `cat /path/to/data`
> 
> the contents of /path/to/data are your very long string.
> 
> Regards,
> 

Thanks I never though of that solution.