\section begin begin - start a new block of code \subsection begin-synopsis Synopsis \fish{syn} begin; [COMMANDS...;] end \endfish \subsection begin-description Description `begin` is used to create a new block of code. The block is unconditionally executed. `begin; ...; end` is equivalent to `if true; ...; end`. `begin` is used to group a number of commands into a block. This allows the introduction of a new variable scope, redirection of the input or output of a set of commands as a group, or to specify precedence when using the conditional commands like `and`. `begin` does not change the current exit status. \subsection begin-example Example The following code sets a number of variables inside of a block scope. Since the variables are set inside the block and have local scope, they will be automatically deleted when the block ends. \fish begin set -l PIRATE Yarrr ... end echo $PIRATE # This will not output anything, since the PIRATE variable went out # of scope at the end of the block \endfish In the following code, all output is redirected to the file out.html. \fish begin echo $xml_header echo $html_header if test -e $file ... end ... end > out.html \endfish