Multi-line string with extra space (preserved indentation)
Solution 1:
Heredoc sounds more convenient for this purpose. It is used to send multiple commands to a command interpreter program like ex or cat
cat << EndOfMessage
This is line 1.
This is line 2.
Line 3.
EndOfMessage
The string after <<
indicates where to stop.
To send these lines to a file, use:
cat > $FILE <<- EOM
Line 1.
Line 2.
EOM
You could also store these lines to a variable:
read -r -d '' VAR << EOM
This is line 1.
This is line 2.
Line 3.
EOM
This stores the lines to the variable named VAR
.
When printing, remember the quotes around the variable otherwise you won't see the newline characters.
echo "$VAR"
Even better, you can use indentation to make it stand out more in your code. This time just add a -
after <<
to stop the tabs from appearing.
read -r -d '' VAR <<- EOM
This is line 1.
This is line 2.
Line 3.
EOM
But then you must use tabs, not spaces, for indentation in your code.
Solution 2:
If you're trying to get the string into a variable, another easy way is something like this:
USAGE=$(cat <<-END
This is line one.
This is line two.
This is line three.
END
)
If you indent your string with tabs (i.e., '\t'), the indentation will be stripped out. If you indent with spaces, the indentation will be left in.
NOTE: It is significant that the last closing parenthesis is on another line. The END
text must appear on a line by itself.