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3.2.4 Compound Commands

Compound commands are the shell programming constructs. Each construct begins with a reserved word or control operator and is terminated by a corresponding reserved word or operator. Any redirections (see section 3.6 Redirections) associated with a compound command apply to all commands within that compound command unless explicitly overridden.

Bash provides looping constructs, conditional commands, and mechanisms to group commands and execute them as a unit.