How to present a command in multiple lines for instant copy/paste usage? I am documenting some commands for future usage, some of them are too long and I want to document them in multiple lines for visualization, and then just copy and paste them for usage. For example: Raw: openssl pkcs12 -export -in intermediate/certs/lala-lira.cert.pem -inkey intermediate/private/lala-lira.key.pem -out intermediate/private/lala-lira.pfx Presentational: openssl pkcs12 -export -in intermediate/certs/lala-lira.cert.pem -inkey intermediate/private/lala-lira.key.pem -out intermediate/private/lala-lira.pfx The problem is if I copy and paste the presentational form, each line will be interpreted as one individual and independent command.

End every line but for the last with a backslash. To use your command as an example:


openssl pkcs12 -export \
-in intermediate/certs/lala-lira.cert.pem \
-inkey intermediate/private/lala-lira.key.pem \
-out intermediate/private/lala-lira.pfx


What you are doing here is escaping the end-of-line, causing the shell to treat is as non-delimiting whitespace. Since the escape marker only has an effect upon the next character, the next character _must_ be the end-of-line. (That means no trailing spaces allowed; beware!)