This is the toplevel README to LilyPond
***************************************

   LilyPond is a music typesetter.  It produces beautiful sheet music
using a high level description file as input.  LilyPond is part of the
GNU Project.

Versioning
==========

   LilyPond uses a versioning scheme similar to the Linux kernel.  In a
version "x.y.z", an even second number 'y' denotes a stable version.
For development versions 'y' is odd.  So, in theory, version 1.2 is
stable, which means that there are no glaring errors in it. In practice
1.2.x is also unmaintained.

   1.3.x is in healthy development: lots of problems turn up, but
they're fixed quickly. Therefore we recommend you try 1.2.x, if you
have any problem with it, upgrade to the latest 1.3.x release.

Requirements
============

   For the compilation and running of LilyPond you need some additional
packages.  Please refer to the installation instructions in
`INSTALL.txt'.

   NOTE: If you downloaded a binary (.rpm or a W95/NT .zip file), you
don't have to compile LilyPond.

Installation
============

   For your convenience, a formatted copy of the INSTALL instructions
are in the toplevel directory, as INSTALL.txt

Documentation
=============

   The documentation is available online at
`http://www.cs.uu.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html'.  You can also build
it locally. This does require a working LilyPond binary.  The following
formats are supported:
   * HTML. Refer to INSTALL.txt for information on how to make the HTML
     documentation.

   * `.dvi',  for the tutorial and reference manual. Do

           make -C Documentation/user/ dvi
     The printable documentation is left in `Documentation/user/out/'.

   * paper. Create the .dvi documentation, and print it with dvips.


Comments
========

   LilyPond is a long way from finished and polished, so we please send
your criticism, comments, bugreports, patches, etc., to the mailing
list.  and _not_ to us personally.

   We have the following mailing lists:

   * info-gnu-music@gnu.org
     (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu-music) is a
     low-volume list for information on the GNU Music project.
     This list is moderated; ask     David R. Linn <drl@gnu.org> or
     Han-Wen <hanwen@cs.uu.nl> to send announcements for this list.

   * gnu-music-discuss@gnu.org
     (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-music-discuss)   For
     general discussions concerning LilyPond.

   * help-gnu-music@gnu.org
     (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-music)     For help
     with using LilyPond.

   * bug-gnu-music@gnu.org
     (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gnu-music) If you have
     bugreports, you should send them to this list.

Windows 32
==========

   If you have received this file as part of a DOS/Window32 distribution
(`LilyPond-*.zip'), it is advisable to also download the source
package, since it might contain more documentation
`ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/'

Caveats
=======

   If you have installed a previous version, be sure to remove old font
files, eg.,
     rm `find /var/lib/texmf/fonts -name 'feta*'`

   a script to do this for you is in `buildscripts/clean-fonts.sh'

Bugs
====

   Send bug reports to <bug-gnu-music@gnu.org>.  For help and questions
use <help-gnu-music@gnu.org> and <gnu-music-discuss@gnu.org>.  Please
consult the FAQ and installation instructions before mailing your
problems.