Bash: split long string argument to multiple lines?

Question

Given a command that takes a single long string argument like:

mycommand -arg1 "very long string which does not fit on the screen" 

is it possible to somehow split it in a way similar to how separate arguments can be split with \.

I tried:

mycommand -arg1 "very \ long \ string \ which ..." 

but this doesn't work.

mycommand is an external command so cannot be modified to take single arguments.

Answer 1

You can assign your string to a variable like this:

long_arg="my very long string\  which does not fit\  on the screen" 

Then just use the variable:

mycommand "$long_arg" 

Within double quotes, a newline preceded by a backslash is removed. Note that all the other white space in the string is significant, i.e. it will be present in the variable.