---
 lshell/shellcmd.py |   26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

--- a/lshell/shellcmd.py
+++ b/lshell/shellcmd.py
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ class ShellCmd(cmd.Cmd, object):
             self.promptbase = getuser()
 
         self.prompt = '%s:~$ ' % self.promptbase
+	self.prompt2 = '> ' # PS2 prompt
 
         self.intro = self.conf['intro']
 
@@ -670,6 +671,12 @@ class ShellCmd(cmd.Cmd, object):
                 self.stdout.write("%s\n" % self.intro)
             if self.conf['login_script']:
 	  	self.loginCmdParse(self.conf['login_script'])
+
+            # for long commands, a user may escape the new line
+            # by giving a bash like '\' character at the end of
+            # the line. cmdloop() needs to recognize that and
+            # create an appended line before sending it to onecmd()
+            partial_line = ""
             stop = None
             while not stop:
                 if self.cmdqueue:
@@ -691,7 +698,24 @@ class ShellCmd(cmd.Cmd, object):
                             line = 'EOF'
                         else:
                             line = line[:-1] # chop \n
-                line = self.precmd(line)
+
+		if len(line) > 1 and line.startswith('\\'):
+                    # implying previous partial line
+		    line = line[:1].replace('\\', '', 1)
+		if partial_line:
+		    line = partial_line + line
+                if line.endswith('\\'):
+                    # continuation character. First partial line.
+		    # We shall expect the command to continue in
+		    # a new line. Change to bash like PS2 prompt to
+		    # indicate this continuation to the user
+                    partial_line = line.strip('\\')
+	            self.prompt = self.prompt2 # switching to PS2
+                    continue
+		partial_line = ""
+
+		self.updateprompt(os.getcwd())
+		line = self.precmd(line)
                 stop = self.onecmd(line)
                 stop = self.postcmd(stop, line)
             self.postloop()