3 lilypond - the GNU music typesetter
7 lilypond [options] [inputfiles]
11 LilyPond is the GNU Project music typesetter. The program generates
12 visual or auditive output from a music definition file: it can typeset
13 formatted sheet music to a TeX file and play (mechanical) performances
20 =item B<-I,--include>=F<FILE>,
22 add F<FILE> to the search path for input files.
26 This disables TeX output. If you have a \midi definition, it will do
31 Turn debugging info on. GNU LilyPond reads the file F<.dstreamrc>,
32 which lists what functions and classes may produce copious debugging
37 Switch on any experimental features. Not for general public use.
39 =item B<-w,--warranty>,
41 Show the warranty with which GNU LilyPond comes. (It comes with B<NO
44 =item B<-o,--output=>F<FILE>,
46 Set the default output file to F<FILE>.
50 Show a summary of usage.
52 =item B<-i,--init=>F<FILE>,
54 Set init file to F<FILE> (default: F<lily-init.ly>).
56 =item B<--include, -I>=F<DIRECTORY>,
58 Add F<DIRECTORY> to the search path for input files.
60 =item B<--ignore-version, -V>,
62 Make incompatible mudela version non-fatal.
68 This is an overview of the features that GNU LilyPond supports. For
69 details on how to use them, you should consult mudela(5).
75 ASCII script input, with identifiers (for music reuse),
76 customizable notenames, customisable fontset.
80 MIDI output lets you check if you have entered the correct notes.
84 MIDI to Mudela conversion through the mi2mu program.
88 Multiple staffs in one score. Each staff can have different meters.
92 Beams, slurs, ties, chords, super/subscripts (accents and text)
93 triplets, general n-plet (triplet, quadruplets, etc.), lyrics,
94 transposition dynamics (both absolute and hairpin style).
98 Multiple voices within one staff; beams optionally shared
99 between voices. Up to four voices is handled cleanly.
103 Multiple scores within one input file. Each score is output to
108 Clef changes, meter changes, cadenza-mode, key changes, repeat bars.
112 =head1 DISCLAIMER & COPYING POLICY
114 GNU LilyPond is copyright 1996, 1997 by its authors. GNU LilyPond is
115 distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. GNU LilyPond
116 is provided without any warranty what so ever.
117 GNU LilyPond may be freely distributed. For further information consult
118 the GNU General Public License, from the file F<COPYING>.
122 Please consult the documentation file AUTHORS for more detailed
123 information, and small contributions.
129 Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@stack.nl>, http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen
133 Jan Nieuwenhuizen <jan@digicash.com>, http://www.digicash.com/~jan.
141 There is an extensive list of todoes and bugs. See F<TODO>. In
142 general, try to find out
148 If the bug has been fixed in a newer release.
152 If the bug has been found earlier, consult F<TODO> and F<BUGS>.
156 If you have found a bug, then you should send a bugreport.
161 Send a copy of the input which causes the error.
164 Send a description of the platform you use.
167 Send a description of the LilyPond version you use (with
168 compile/configure options please).
171 Send a description of the bug itself.
174 Send it to bug-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu.
178 It does help if you can find out where the bug comes from: if GNU
179 LilyPond bombs out, then please recompile using with debugging info
180 turned on, and send gdb stacktrace of the crash. It also helps if you
181 can print the values of the objects. So if your trace is
185 #0 Interval::operator+= (this=0x11fffec60..)
186 at ../flower/interval.hh:50
187 #1 0x12005195c in Item::width (this=0x14008a680) at src/item.cc:39
188 #2 0x12008fdbc in itemlist_width (its=0x11fffed58 ..
192 Than it would help if you send a dump of the Interval and the Item
193 (use: C<print *this> or use LilyPond C<print()> methods).
200 =item F<lily-init.ly>
202 The initialisation file with symbol tables etc. It
203 includes files from the directory F<init/>.
209 B<LILYINCLUDE> an (one) additional directory for finding lilypond data.
219 On technical details of LilyPond
223 On the input format. This is a LilyPond-enhanced LaTeX document.
227 Goals of the GNU LilyPond project.
231 The GNU LilyPond FAQ list
233 =item http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html
235 GNU LilyPond has her own webpage. This webpage contains the MIDI, GIF
236 and PS files for some standard music files. It also has the complete
237 LilyPond documentation
242 updated very frequently, the latest version is always available at:
243 ftp://pcnov095.win.tue.nl/pub/lilypond and
244 ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/lilypond/
247 For programs which are part of the GNU music project, the following
248 mailing list have been setup:
253 =item info-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
255 For information on the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send mail with
256 subject "subscribe" to info-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
258 =item help-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
260 For help with programs from the GNU music project. To subscribe: send
261 mail with subject "subscribe" to
262 help-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
264 =item bug-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
266 If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list. If you want
267 to read all bugreports, you should subscribe to this list. To
268 subscribe: send mail with subject "subscribe" to
269 bug-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
271 =item gnu-music-discuss@vuse.vanderbilt.edu,
273 For discussions concerning the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send
274 mail with subject "subscribe" to
275 gnu-music-discuss-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu,
280 Announces of new versions will be sent to info-gnu-music and
285 GNU LilyPond has no connection with the music package Rosegarden, other
286 than the names being similar :-)
290 (for a detailed changelog, see F<NEWS>)
292 GNU LilyPond's roots lie in MPP, a preprocessor to the rather arcane
293 MusiXTeX macro package for TeX. A friend of mine, Jan Nieuwenhuizen
294 wrote the first 44 versions (0.01 to 0.44), then his program caught my
295 attention, and I was slowly sucked in to the interesting problem of
296 easily producing beautifully printed music. I contributed some
297 code. We soon realised that MPP's design was too fundamentally broken
298 to be repaired, so it was decided to rewrite MPP. We debated a lot about
299 the requirements to an inputformat (fall 1995). I sat down and started
300 with a parser-first, bottom-up rewrite called mpp95 (which totally
303 After long and hard thinking, I came up with an algorithm for the
304 horizontal spacing of multiple staffs (april 1996) I coded it (and did
305 not test it). After starting with this fundamental piece, I slowly
306 added the stages which come before spacing, and after. A half year
307 later, I had a first working version, (october 1996). I announced
308 Patchlevel 0.0.7 (or 8) to the mutex list after asking some technical
309 details on spacing; it was downloaded approximately 4 times. Then I
310 got the hang of it, and in the subsequent two months, I coded until it
311 had doubled in size (pl 23).
313 Most the other history is described in the NEWS file. The first large
314 scale release (0.1) was done after approximately 78 patchlevels on