[windows] How to write a multiline command?

How do we extend a command to the next line?

Basically whats the windows alternative for Linux's

ls -l \
/usr/

Here we use backslashes to extend the command onto the next lines.

What's the equivalent for Windows?

In the Windows Command Prompt the ^ is used to escape the next character on the command line. (Like \ is used in strings.) Characters that need to be used in the command line as they are should have a ^ prefixed to them, hence that's why it works for the newline.

For reference the characters that need escaping (if specified as command arguments and not within quotes) are: &|()

So the equivalent of your linux example would be (the More? being a prompt):

C:\> dir ^
More? C:\Windows

If you came here looking for an answer to this question but not exactly the way the OP meant, ie how do you get multi-line CMD to work in a single line, I have a sort of dangerous answer for you.

Trying to use this with things that actually use piping, like say findstr is quite problematic. The same goes for dealing with elses. But if you just want a multi-line conditional command to execute directly from CMD and not via a batch file, this should do work well.

Let's say you have something like this in a batch that you want to run directly in command prompt:

@echo off
for /r %%T IN (*.*) DO (
    if /i "%%~xT"==".sln" (
        echo "%%~T" is a normal SLN file, and not a .SLN.METAPROJ or .SLN.PROJ file
        echo Dumping SLN file contents
        type "%%~T"
    )
)

Now, you could use the line-continuation carat (^) and manually type it out like this, but warning, it's tedious and if you mess up you can learn the joy of typing it all out again.

Well, it won't work with just ^ thanks to escaping mechanisms inside of parentheses shrug At least not as-written. You actually would need to double up the carats like so:

@echo off ^
More? for /r %T IN (*.sln) DO (^^
More? if /i "%~xT"==".sln" (^^
More? echo "%~T" is a normal SLN file, and not a .SLN.METAPROJ or .SLN.PROJ file^^
More? echo Dumping SLN file contents^^
More? type "%~T"))

Instead, you can be a dirty sneaky scripter from the wrong side of the tracks that don't need no carats by swapping them out for a single pipe (|) per continuation of a loop/expression:

@echo off
for /r %T IN (*.sln) DO if /i "%~xT"==".sln" echo "%~T" is a normal SLN file, and not a .SLN.METAPROJ or .SLN.PROJ file | echo Dumping SLN file contents | type "%~T"

The caret character works, however the next line should not start with double quotes. e.g. this will not work:

C:\ ^
"SampleText" ..

Start next line without double quotes (not a valid example, just to illustrate)