Compound Commands

Looping Constructs	Shell commands for iterative action.
Conditional Constructs	Shell commands for conditional execution.
Command Grouping	Ways to group 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 Redirections) associated with a compound command apply to all commands within that compound command unless explicitly overridden.

In most cases a list of commands in a compound command’s description may be separated from the rest of the command by one or more newlines, and may be followed by a newline in place of a semicolon.

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