On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 8:17 AM, Ray Andrews wrote: > > if [ -e 'shelly.txt' ] > && [ -n "$ozymandias" ] > && [ grep "I met a traveler" ] > then > echo "Look on my works, ye mighty" > fi > Why are you using ancient Bourne-shell syntax? If you need compatibility with the Bourn-shell you can't use the feature you're asking for. If you use the slightly less ancient Korn-shell syntax you can break the test across lines the way you want: #!/bin/zsh ozymandia=yes if [[ -e 'shelly.txt' && -n "$ozymandia" && -n $(grep "I met a traveler" shelly.txt) ]] then echo "Look on my works, ye mighty" fi Note that I fixed your command as "grep" isn't a valid test; although, I wouldn't write it that way in practice as it isn't efficient. P.S., Are you aware that in the days of the Bourne-shell that the shell did not interpret tests like "-e" it simply ran the "[" command and checked its exit status. In fact that command should still exist on your system as a hardlink to the "test" command. Run $ ls -li '/bin/[' /bin/test 123034700 -rwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 18480 Sep 9 15:44 /bin/[* 123034700 -rwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 18480 Sep 9 15:44 /bin/test* to see this. -- Kurtis Rader Caretaker of the exceptional canines Junior and Hank