Inline comments for Bash?

Question

I\'d like to be able to comment out a single flag in a one-line command. Bash only seems to have from # till end-of-line comments. I\'m looking at tricks like:<

Answer 1

Here's my solution for inline comments in between multiple piped commands.

Example uncommented code:

    #!/bin/sh
    cat input.txt \
    | grep something \
    | sort -r

Solution for a pipe comment (using a helper function):

    #!/bin/sh
    pipe_comment() {
        cat - 
    }
    cat input.txt \
    | pipe_comment "filter down to lines that contain the word: something" \
    | grep something \
    | pipe_comment "reverse sort what is left" \
    | sort -r

Or if you prefer, here's the same solution without the helper function, but it's a little messier:

    #!/bin/sh
    cat input.txt \
    | cat - `: filter down to lines that contain the word: something` \
    | grep something \
    | cat - `: reverse sort what is left` \
    | sort -r