$ perl -le'$_="\
"; print length;'
1

##</code><code>##

$ perl -e'print
   `echo foo
   bar`
'
sh: line 1: bar: command not found
foo

$ perl -e'print
   `echo foo \
   bar`
'
sh: line 1: bar: command not found
foo

$ perl -e'print
   `echo foo \\
   bar`
'
foo bar