3 lilypond - the GNU music typesetter
7 lilypond [options] [inputfiles]
11 Technically GNU LilyPond is a preprocessor which generates TeX
12 (or LaTeX) output which contains information to typeset a musical
13 score. Practically it is a typesetter, which only uses TeX as an
14 output medium. (this is handy because there exist music fonts for TeX)
16 As a bonus, you can also output a MIDI file of what you typed.
18 It translates script files (mudela files or F<*.ly>'s) into TeX input.
19 Typesetting music is a complex task, whereas the message that printed
20 music conveys is usually a simple one. GNU LilyPond is a try at providing
21 a simple interface for setting music.
27 =item B<-I,--include>=F<FILE>,
29 add F<FILE> to the search path for input files.
38 Turn debugging info. GNU LilyPond will read the file F<.dstreamrc>, which
39 tells for what functions and classes may produce copious debugging
42 =item B<-w,--warranty>,
44 Show the warranty with which GNU LilyPond comes. (It comes with B<NO
47 =item B<-o,--output=>F<FILE>,
49 Set the default output file to F<FILE>.
53 Show a summary of usage
55 =item B<-i,--init=>F<FILE>
57 set init file to F<FILE> (default: F<symbol.ini>)
59 =item B<--include, -I>=F<DIRECTORY>
61 add F<DIRECTORY> to the search path for input files.
67 This is an overview of the features that GNU LilyPond supports. For
68 details on how to use them, you should consult mudela(5)
74 ASCII script input, with identifiers (for music reuse),
75 customizable notenames, customizable fontset
79 MIDI output lets you check if you have entered the correct notes.
83 MIDI to Mudela conversion through the mi2mu program.
87 Multiple staffs in one score. Each staff can have a different meters.
91 multiple stafftypes (melodic, rhythmic) [broken from pl28 on]
95 beams, slurs, ties, chords, super/subscripts (accents and text),
96 triplets, general n-plet (triplet, quadruplets, etc.), lyrics,
97 transposition dynamics (both absolute and hairpin style)
101 multiple voices within one staff; beams optionally shared
102 between voices. Up to four voices is handled cleanly.
106 multiple scores within one input file. Each score is output to
111 clef changes, meter changes, cadenza-mode, key changes, repeat bars
115 =head1 DISCLAIMER & COPYING POLICY
117 GNU LilyPond is copyright 1996,97 by its authors. GNU LilyPond is
118 distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
119 License. GNU LilyPond is provided without any warranty what so ever.
120 GNU LilyPond may be freely distributed. For further information consult
121 the GNU General Public License, which is in the file F<COPYING>
125 Please consult the documentation file AUTHORS for more detailed
126 information, and small contributions.
132 Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@stack.nl>, http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen
138 Jan Nieuwenhuizen <jan@digicash.com>, http://www.digicash.com/~jan.
140 Context errors, Lyrics, mi2mu, MIDI stuff, make structure, bits of
141 FlowerLib, general comments, Mudela design.
145 Your name could be here! If you want to help, then take a look at the
146 SMALLISH PROJECTS section of in the file F<TODO>. Some do not involve
151 At this time, GNU LilyPond output looks nice, but is not of production
152 quality. If you're not discouraged; this is what I type in my xterm:
154 lilypond someinput.ly
158 This is what the output looks like over here:
160 hw:~/musix/spacer$ GNU LilyPond 0.0.60 #8/FlowerLib 1.1.14 #2
161 Parsing ... [./input/kortjakje.ly[lots of stuff]]
162 Setting up requests...Processing requests ...[8][16][24][25]
163 Preprocessing elements...
164 Calculating column positions ... [3][7][12][16][20][25]
165 Postprocessing elements...
166 TeX output to lelie.tex ...
168 hw:~/musix/spacer$ tex lelie
169 This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (C version 6.1)
171 Hyphenation patterns for english, dutch, german, loaded.
172 (/home/hw/lib/texmf/tex/lilypond/lilyponddefs.tex) [1] )
173 Output written on lelie.dvi (1 page, 8944 bytes).
174 Transcript written on lelie.log.
176 hw:~/musix/spacer$ xdvi lelie&
179 Check out the input files, some of them have comments
185 There is an extensive list of todoes and bugs. See F<TODO>. In
186 general, try to find out
192 if the bug has been fixed in a newer release.
196 if the bug has been found earlier, consult F<TODO>
200 where the bug comes from: if GNU LilyPond bombs out, then please
201 recompile using with debugging info turned on, and send a copy of the
202 input which causes the error and a gdb stacktrace of the crash. It
203 also helps if you can print the values of the objects. So if your
207 #0 Interval::operator+= (this=0x11fffec60..)
208 at ../flower/interval.hh:50
209 #1 0x12005195c in Item::width (this=0x14008a680) at src/item.cc:39
210 #2 0x12008fdbc in itemlist_width (its=0x11fffed58 ..
214 Than it would help if you send a dump of the Interval and the Item
215 (use: C<print *this> or use GNU LilyPond C<print()> methods).
219 Bug reports should be directed to
220 bug-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu. In any case, they should contain a
221 description of the problem, an small input file which reproduces it
222 (if applicable), lilypond version and a description of the platform.
231 The initialisation file with symbol tables etc. It
232 includes files from the directory F<init/>.
238 B<LILYINCLUDE> an (one) additional directory for finding lilypond data.
248 On technical details of LilyPond
256 Goals of the GNU LilyPond project.
260 The GNU LilyPond FAQ list
264 The GNU Music project. GNU LilyPond is part of the GNU Music
265 project. For more information on the GNU Music project,
267 =item http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html
269 GNU LilyPond has her own webpage at
270 This webpage contains
271 the MIDI, GIF and PS files for some standard music files. It also has
272 the complete LilyPond documentation
278 updated very frequently, the latest version is always available at:
279 ftp://pcnov095.win.tue.nl/pub/lilypond.
281 For programs which part of the GNU music project, the following mailing list
287 =item info-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
289 For information on the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send mail with
290 subject "subscribe" to info-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
292 =item help-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
294 For help with programs from the GNU music project. To subscribe: send
295 mail with subject "subscribe" to
296 help-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
298 =item bug-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
300 If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list. If you want
301 to read all bugreports, you should subscribe to this list. To
302 subscribe: send mail with subject "subscribe" to
303 bug-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
305 =item gnu-music-discuss@vuse.vanderbilt.edu,
307 For discussions concerning the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send
308 mail with subject "subscribe" to
309 gnu-music-discuss-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu,
315 GNU LilyPond has no connection with the music package Rosegarden, other
316 than the names being similar :-)
320 (for a detailed changelog, see F<NEWS>)
322 GNU LilyPond's roots lie in MPP, a preprocessor to the rather arcane
323 MusiXTeX macro package for TeX. A friend of mine, Jan Nieuwenhuizen
324 wrote the first 44 versions (0.01 to 0.44), then his program caught my
325 attention, and I was slowly sucked in to the interesting problem of
326 easily producing beautifully printed music. I contributed some
327 code. We soon realised that MPP's design was too fundamentally broken
328 to be repaired. It was decided to rewrite MPP. We debated a lot about
329 the requirements to an inputformat (fall 1995). I sat down and started
330 with a parser-first, bottom-up rewrite called mpp95 (which totally
333 After long and hard thinking, I came up with an algorithm for the
334 horizontal spacing of multiple staffs (april 1996) I coded it (and did
335 not test it). After starting with this fundamental piece, I slowly
336 added the stages which come before spacing, and after. A half year
337 later, I had a first working version, (october 1996). I announced
338 Patchlevel 0.0.7 (or 8) to the mutex list after asking some technical
339 details on spacing; it was downloaded approximately 4 times. Then I
340 got the hang of it, and in the subsequent two months, I coded until it
341 had doubled in size (pl 23).