A bash environment variable, similar to PS1. It is your "secondary" prompt (whereas PS1 is your "primary"). The difference is that PS1 is what it gives you when it's asking for a command, and PS2 is what it gives you when it's in the process of accepting a multi-line command. For example, let's say you were giving it the command:
echo "This is line one of this echo
This is line two of this echo" > random_file
When you started typing line one, you would be typing into PS1, and when you started typing line 2 (or any subsequent lines, for that matter), you would be typing into PS2.

To see what your PS2 looks like, type echo $PS2

To change your PS2, type PS2="new_ps2_value"
People usually do this in their bashrc file.

PS2 usually contains nothing but "> ", but you can use any of the escaped commands given in the PS1 node.

Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.