exec rails_best_practices on "rails3 rake" for jenkins plot plugin

rails_best_practices.rake

namespace :rails_best_practices do
  desc "run rails best practices"
  task :jenkins_plot_plugin => :environment do

    cd Rails.root do

      OUTDIR = "#{Rails.root}/reports"
      mkdir OUTDIR unless FileTest.exist? OUTDIR
      OUTFILE = "#{OUTDIR}/rails_best_practices.properties"

      Tempfile.open('rails_best_practices.XXXXXX', OUTDIR) do |file|
        TMPFILE = file.path

        sh <<EOL
bundle exec rails_best_practices > #{TMPFILE}; ¥
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; ¥
then ¥
  echo "YVALUE=0" > #{OUTFILE}; ¥
else ¥
  NUM=`awk '/^Found [0-9]+ [a-zA-Z]+s/{ print $2; }' < #{TMPFILE}` ;
  echo "YVALUE=$NUM" > #{OUTFILE}; ¥
fi;
cat #{TMPFILE};
EOL
      end

    end
  end
end

Can you explain what the ¥ means in that script?