1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
2 @setfilename README.info
3 @settitle This is the toplevel README to LilyPond
7 @chapter This is the toplevel README to LilyPond
10 LilyPond is a music typesetter. It produces beautiful sheet music
11 using a high level description file as input. LilyPond is part of
16 LilyPond uses a versioning scheme similar to the Linux kernel. In a
17 version "x.y.z", an even second number 'y' denotes a stable version.
18 For development versions 'y' is odd. Sh, in theory, version 1.2 is stable,
19 which means that there are no glaring errors in it. In practice 1.2.x is also
22 1.3.x is in healthy development: lots of problems turn up, but they're
23 fixed quickly. Therefore we recommend you try 1.2.x, if you have any
24 problem with it, upgrade to the latest 1.3.x release.
28 For the compilation and running of LilyPond you need some additional
29 packages. Please refer to the installation instructions.
31 NOTE: If you downloaded a binary (.rpm or a W95/NT .zip file),
32 you don't have to compile LilyPond.
36 For your convenience, a formatted copy of the INSTALL instructions are
37 in the toplevel directory, as INSTALL.txt
39 @section Documentation
41 The real documentation is the directory Documentation/
43 If you want to read the documentation online, these are options:
46 @item use HTML. Refer to INSTALL.txt for information
47 on how to make the HTML documentation.
49 @item use HTML. Point your browser to
50 @uref{http://www.cs.uu.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html}.
51 @item use @file{.dvi}, for the tutorial and reference manual. Do
54 make -C Documentation/user/ dvi
57 You need a working LilyPond binary to create the DVI and HTML sources.
69 LilyPond is a long way from finished and polished. We do appreciate
70 criticism, comments, bugreports, patches, etc., but please,
73 Please send your e-mail to one of the MAILING LISTS
77 and @emph{not} to us personally. We have the following mailing lists:
80 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu-music,info-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
81 is a low-volume list for information on the GNU Music project.
82 This list is moderated; ask
83 @email{drl@@gnu.org, David R. Linn} or
84 @email{hanwen@@cs.uu.nl, Han-Wen} to send announcements for this list.
85 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-music,help-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
86 For help with using LilyPond.
87 @item @uref{http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gnu-music,bug-gnu-music@@gnu.org}
88 If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list.
94 If you have received this file as part of a DOS/Window32 distribution
95 (@file{LilyPond-*.zip}), it is advisable to also download the
96 source package, since it might contain more documentation
97 @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/}
99 If you decide to build LilyPond from source, please read the INSTALL.txt
100 document first, especially the Windows NT/95 section.
104 If you have installed a previous version, be sure to remove old font
107 rm `find /var/lib/texmf/fonts -name 'feta*'`
110 a script to do this for you is in @file{buildscripts/clean-fonts.sh}
114 Send bug reports to @email{bug-gnu-music@@gnu.org}. For help and
115 questions use @email{help-gnu-music@@gnu.org} and
116 @email{gnu-music-discuss@@gnu.org}. Please consult the FAQ and
117 installation instructions before mailing your problems.
119 @section CDROM distributions
121 If you have received LilyPond on a cdrom, chances are that development
122 has moved some patchlevels up. Please check the latest version of
123 LilyPond before reporting bugs.