I'm trying to understand if it's possible to add comments in multi-line shell commands that I want to demonstrate directly in the terminal (not as a shell script). For example, I'd like to write a Docker command like this:
sudo docker run -d
# The name of the container
--name jellyfin-test
# Mounting directories
-v /srv/jellyfin/config:/config
-v /srv/jellyfin/cache:/cache
-v /home/user1/Music:/user1/Music
-v /home/user1/Videos:/user1/Videos
-v /home/user2/Music:/user2/Music
-v /home/user2/Videos:/user2/Videos
-v /home/user3/Music:/user3/Music
-v /home/user3/Videos:/user3/Videos
# Only allow usage of port 8096
--publish 8096:8096
# For hardware acceleration if needed
--group-add="992"
--device /dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128
# Ensure the container starts automatically unless stopped
--restart=unless-stopped
# Specify the image for this container
jellyfin/jellyfin:latest
However, after the first comment, each line seems to be treated as its own command, and I'm getting errors that those commands aren't found. Is there a way to make this work?
2 Answers
I see what you're trying to do, but remember that the trailing backslashes `` indicate that the command continues on the next line. The comments don’t get that continuation character, which causes the shell to treat them differently. You can use multi-line comments with a different approach, like using a trick with `:` to comment out sections as follows:
```
: '
Command Explanation
--name: The name of the container
-v: Mounting directories
...'
```
You can't really add comments like that in the middle of a command when you're pasting it into the terminal. If you want to include comments, consider wrapping your command block into a shell script instead. That way, comments preceding the commands will work perfectly.
I tried that method, but I still encounter issues. It seems like the shell isn't recognizing the comments properly, which is confusing.