sh script writing help

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Sun, 30 May 2010 13:14:01 +0800, Aiza <aiza21 at comclark.com> wrote:
> 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.

If the message does not have to be a *single* command-line argument of
the exerr function, you can split the message in multiple arguments
and use '\' for continuation lines, e.g.:

    echo "This is a very long message" \
        "that does not fit in a single" \
        "line of text."

This might not work if you _have_ to pass the string as a single
argument, but even in that case you can use shell substitution to wrap
the exerr() function, e.g.:

    exwrap()
    {
        return exerr "$*"
    }

    exwrap "This is a very long message" \
        "that does not fit in a single" \
        "line of text."