Editing Linux 101 hacks (section)

=='''Hack 30. PS2 - Continuation Interactive Prompt'''==


A very long command can be broken down to multiple lines by giving \ at the end of the line. The default interactive prompt for a multi-line command is “> “. Let us change this default behavior to display “continue->” by using PS2 environment variable as shown below.


'''ramesh@dev-db ~> '''myisamchk --silent --force --fast --''' '''update-state \


# --key_buffer_size=512M --sort_buffer_size=512M \ 

# --read_buffer_size=4M --write_buffer_size=4M \ 

# /var/lib/mysql/bugs/*.MYI 

<nowiki>[</nowiki>'''Note:''' This uses the default ">" for continuation prompt]


ramesh@dev-db ~> '''export PS2="continue-> "'''


'''ramesh@dev-db ~> '''myisamchk --silent --force --fast --''' '''update-state \


'''continue-> '''--key_buffer_size=512M --''' '''sort_buffer_size=512M \


'''continue-> '''--read_buffer_size=4M --write_buffer_size=4M


\


'''continue-> '''/var/lib/mysql/bugs/*.MYI


<nowiki>[</nowiki>'''Note:''' This uses the modified "continue-> " for


continuation prompt]


I found it very helpful and easy to read, when I break my long commands into multiple lines using \. I have also seen others who don’t like to break-up long commands.