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I have a long command line, and I would like to enter it on several lines. Something like the following (if it were possible):

vsdbcmd /a:Deploy /manifest:Database.deploymanifest _
    /p:DeploymentConfigurationFile=Database_Database.sqldeployment _
    /p:SqlCommandVariablesFile=Database_Database.sqlcmdvars _
    /p:TargetDatabase=Database _
    /dd- /cs:"Data Source=production;integrated security=true" _
    /script:DatabaseChanges.sql /dsp:SQL > errors.log 2>&1

Is there a character or sequence of characters that can be used to write a command line on more than one line?

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  • 2
    Out of curiosity, if it's more than one line, and looks as long and as complicated as you specified, why not put it in a bat/cmd file, or better yet, a script (wsh/poweshell)? This would allow you to launch it with one word Aug 19, 2011 at 2:29
  • I intend to put it into a script, but will it run if it's on more than one line? Aug 19, 2011 at 2:52
  • That is the point of a script/batchfile
    – soandos
    Aug 19, 2011 at 2:54
  • The closest I can see, and it's not for a cmd prompt window but powershell window works for a powershell script too, is stackoverflow.com/questions/2608144/…
    – barlop
    Aug 19, 2011 at 2:57
  • He clearly wants good formatting, so it's very readable. He asked how to do it in a script in his title too.
    – barlop
    Aug 19, 2011 at 2:58

1 Answer 1

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Try using '^' as the continuation character. For example:

echo foo ^
bar ^
baz

results in:

foo bar baz
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  • Thanks! That works. I first used DOS back in 1983 and never knew this. Is it documented somewhere? Aug 19, 2011 at 15:12
  • I assume it's documented somewhere but I couldn't tell you where I first saw it. (It also works for escaping '>', '<', and '|'.)
    – BillP3rd
    Aug 19, 2011 at 15:58
  • neat! I never knew this existed.
    – Keltari
    Aug 20, 2011 at 7:24

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