Preferred syntax for two lines long pipe

bash_bob

When writing a long pipe it is usually clearer to separate it in two lines. This long command line: ruby -run -e httpd -- -p 5000 . 2>&1 | tee >(grep -Fq 'WEBrick::HTTPServer#start' && open localhost:5000) Could be divided as: ruby -run -e httpd -- -p 5000 . 2>&1 \ | tee >(grep -Fq 'WEBrick::HTTPServer#start' && open localhost:5000) Or: ruby -run -e httpd -- -p 5000 . 2>&1 | tee >(grep -Fq 'WEBrick::HTTPServer#start' && open localhost:5000) In...

Originally asked by user232326 on Stack Exchange (unix) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

Ask your self what would this do? command1 \ | command2 Can't see the difference. Neither can I, but the shell can. Look closely, there is a space after the \ . This stops the newline from being escaped. Therefore use the other form, as it is safer. Shown here with the same error (a space after the | in this case). But it does not cause a bug. command1 | command2

Full answer by ctrl-alt-delor: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/578603 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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