How could I use a line as a structuring element for morphology transformations?

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I'm using the documentation example More Morphology Transformations (newbie here). In the kernel type, you can select between cross/ellipse/rectangle. I would like to use a 5x1 line or something like that. I found this answer which discusses a rotated ellipse as a structuring element and this other answer about using a external file as a structuring element. Both of which I want to try.

I'm looking at getStructuringElement; I'm afraid this is beyond me at the moment. I can't connect the dots here as in integrate the answers to the example so that I could specify a line to be used as kernel either from the code or by supplying an image file. I reproduce the original example:

#include "opencv2/imgproc/imgproc.hpp"
#include "opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp"
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

using namespace cv;

/// Global variables
Mat src, dst;

int morph_elem = 0;
int morph_size = 0;
int morph_operator = 0;
int const max_operator = 4;
int const max_elem = 2;
int const max_kernel_size = 21;

char* window_name = "Morphology Transformations Demo";

/** Function Headers */
void Morphology_Operations( int, void* );

/** @function main */
int main( int argc, char** argv )
{
  /// Load an image
  src = imread( argv[1] );

  if( !src.data )
  { return -1; }

 /// Create window
 namedWindow( window_name, CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE );

 /// Create Trackbar to select Morphology operation
 createTrackbar("Operator:\n 0: Opening - 1: Closing \n 2: Gradient - 3: Top Hat \n 4: Black Hat", window_name, &morph_operator, max_operator, Morphology_Operations );

 /// Create Trackbar to select kernel type
 createTrackbar( "Element:\n 0: Rect - 1: Cross - 2: Ellipse", window_name,
                 &morph_elem, max_elem,
                 Morphology_Operations );

 /// Create Trackbar to choose kernel size
 createTrackbar( "Kernel size:\n 2n +1", window_name,
                 &morph_size, max_kernel_size,
                 Morphology_Operations );

 /// Default start
 Morphology_Operations( 0, 0 );

 waitKey(0);
 return 0;
 }

 /**
  * @function Morphology_Operations
  */
void Morphology_Operations( int, void* )
{
  // Since MORPH_X : 2,3,4,5 and 6
  int operation = morph_operator + 2;

  Mat element = getStructuringElement( morph_elem, Size( 2*morph_size + 1, 2*morph_size+1 ), Point( morph_size, morph_size ) );

  /// Apply the specified morphology operation
  morphologyEx( src, dst, operation, element );
  imshow( window_name, dst );
  }