I'm really surprised this answer isn't offered here, I was in search of a solution to this question and I think this is the easiest approach, and more flexible/forgiving...
If you'd like to paste multiple lines from a website/text editor/etc., into bash, regardless of whether it's commands per line or a function or entire script... simply start with a (
and end with a )
and Enter, like in the following example:
If I had the following blob
function hello {
echo Hello!
}
hello
You can paste and verify in a terminal using bash by:
Starting with (
Pasting your text, and pressing Enter (to make it pretty)... or not
Ending with a )
and pressing Enter
Example:
imac:~ home$ ( function hello {
> echo Hello!
> }
> hello
> )
Hello!
imac:~ home$
The pasted text automatically gets continued with a prepending >
for each line. I've tested with multiple lines with commands per line, functions and entire scripts. Hope this helps others save some time!
Try
out=$(cat)
Then paste your lines and press Ctrl-D (insert EOF character). All input till Ctrl-D will be redirected to cat's stdout.
Another possibility:
bash << EOF
echo "Hello"
echo "World"
EOF
To prevent a long line of commands in a text file, I keep my copy-pase snippets like this:
echo a;\
echo b;\
echo c
Try this way:
echo $(
cmd1
cmd2
...
)
If you press C-x C-e
command that will open your default editor which defined .bashrc
, after that you can use all powerful features of your editor. When you save and exit, the lines will wait your enter.
If you want to define your editor, just write for Ex. EDITOR=emacs -nw
or EDITOR=vi
inside of ~/.bashrc
Add parenthesis around the lines. Example:
$ (
sudo apt-get update
dokku apps
dokku ps:stop APP # repeat to shut down each running app
sudo apt-get install -qq -y dokku herokuish sshcommand plugn
dokku ps:rebuildall # rebuilds all applications
)
iTerm handles multiple-line command perfectly, it saves multiple-lines command as one command, then we can use Cmd
+ Shift
+ ;
to navigate the history.
Check more iTerm tips at Working effectively with iTerm
In addition to backslash, if a line ends with |
or &&
or ||
, it will be continued on the next line.
Source: Stackoverflow.com