diff --git a/shell/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/shell/commands/ImportDirectoryCommand.java b/shell/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/shell/commands/ImportDirectoryCommand.java
index 5411098dfd8..07015e68b21 100644
--- a/shell/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/shell/commands/ImportDirectoryCommand.java
+++ b/shell/src/main/java/org/apache/accumulo/shell/commands/ImportDirectoryCommand.java
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public String description() {
         + " table if the -t option is not provided. The boolean argument determines if accumulo"
         + " sets the time. If the -i ignore option is supplied then no exception will be thrown"
         + " when attempting to import files from an empty source directory. An info log message"
-        + " will be displayed indicating the source directory is empty, but no error is thrown.\n"
+        + " will be displayed indicating the source directory is empty, but no error is thrown."
         + " Bulk import only takes 2 arguments:  <directory> true|false";
   }
 
diff --git a/shell/src/test/java/org/apache/accumulo/shell/commands/ImportDirectoryCommandTest.java b/shell/src/test/java/org/apache/accumulo/shell/commands/ImportDirectoryCommandTest.java
index 58abd803119..9826878bb53 100644
--- a/shell/src/test/java/org/apache/accumulo/shell/commands/ImportDirectoryCommandTest.java
+++ b/shell/src/test/java/org/apache/accumulo/shell/commands/ImportDirectoryCommandTest.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 import static org.easymock.EasyMock.expectLastCall;
 import static org.easymock.EasyMock.replay;
 import static org.easymock.EasyMock.verify;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertFalse;
 
 import org.apache.accumulo.core.client.AccumuloClient;
 import org.apache.accumulo.core.client.admin.TableOperations;
@@ -127,4 +128,10 @@ public void testPassTableOptCmdForm() throws Exception {
     replay(client, cli, shellState, tableOperations, bulkImport);
     cmd.execute("importdirectory in_dir false", cli, shellState);
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testDescriptionDoesNotContainLineBreak() {
+    replay(client, cli, shellState, tableOperations, bulkImport);
+    assertFalse(cmd.description().contains("\n"));
+  }
 }