How to Make Block Comments in Bash
The aim of this page📝 is to explain block commenting in Bash and Python. Making these notes during my read through the intricate Testing and Branching chapter of the Advanced Bash Scripting e-book.
1 min readApr 22, 2024
- In Bash, there is no official block comment syntax, but you can use a no-op command in combination with here document as a workaround.
- When in doubt, check Explaining heredocs in Bash — combined with stream redirection
- Example of a block comment in Bash:
: <<'COMMENT'
This is a block comment.
You can write multiple lines here without affecting the script.
COMMENT
- Python supports block comments using triple quotes for multi-line comments.
- Example of a block comment in Python:
'''
This is a block comment.
You can write multiple lines here without affecting the script.
''
- Bash does not have a built-in block comment feature like Python.
- Python’s block comment syntax is more straightforward and directly supported.