Multiline commands in Bash Part 2

💻 Tech

Heredoc — removes the need for \; it’s straightforward

#!/bin/bash
debug=true

cmd=$(cat <<EOF                             
az storage blob list
--account-name hello 
--output table
${debug:+--debug}"
EOF
)

echo $cmd
# output:
# az storage blob list --account-name hello --output table --debug

Note that since there’s parameter expansion (see ${debug:+--debug}), <<'EOF' became <<EOF to ensure the expansion to happen. Notice that the example above used the one without single quotes. As a side note, using a delimiter with single quote ('EOF) in Heredoc ensures all the values are string literals, not expanded or evaluated, probably for reasons like security and safety.