How to avoid multiplying of a string which precedes <<noweb reference>> in code block?

Question

When <> expands to multiple line and I wrote like this

some-string <<noweb ref>>

then it expands like

some-string line1-from-noweb-ref some-string line2-from-noweb-ref some-string line3-from-noweb-ref

Is there a way to avoid this?

Answer 1

I think you're asking how to prefix only the first line of the noweb block. It will probably depend on the language your using, but I came up with this hack for bash:

#+NAME: example
#+BEGIN_SRC text
 please echo this line
 date ## but not this one
 cd test ## this one
 ls -l ## or this one  
#+END_SRC

Bad source code block, echo prepended to very line:

#+BEGIN_SRC bash :noweb yes :results verbatim
  echo <<example>>
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
: please echo this line
: date
: cd test
: ls -l
: 

Good source code block, echo prepended to the first line only, the rest
are executed:

#+BEGIN_SRC bash :noweb yes :results verbatim
  echo \
  <<example>>
#+END_SRC

 #+RESULTS:
 : please echo this line
 : Thu Nov  9 10:22:32 EST 2017
 : total 0
 : -rw-r--r-- 1 tws tws 0 Nov  9 09:44 one
 : -rw-r--r-- 1 tws tws 0 Nov  9 09:44 three
 : -rw-r--r-- 1 tws tws 0 Nov  9 09:44 two