3 This is the toplevel README to LilyPond
4 ***************************************
6 LilyPond is a music typesetter. It produces beautiful sheet music
7 using a high level description file as input. LilyPond is part of the
13 LilyPond uses a versioning scheme similar to the Linux kernel. In a
14 version "x.y.z", an even second number 'y' denotes a stable version.
15 For development versions 'y' is odd. Sh, in theory, version 1.2 is
16 stable, which means that there are no glaring errors in it. In practice
17 1.2.x is also unmaintained.
19 1.3.x is in healthy development: lots of problems turn up, but
20 they're fixed quickly. Therefore we recommend you try 1.2.x, if you
21 have any problem with it, upgrade to the latest 1.3.x release.
26 For the compilation and running of LilyPond you need some additional
27 packages. Please refer to the installation instructions.
29 NOTE: If you downloaded a binary (.rpm or a W95/NT .zip file), you
30 don't have to compile LilyPond.
35 For your convenience, a formatted copy of the INSTALL instructions
36 are in the toplevel directory, as INSTALL.txt
41 The real documentation is the directory Documentation/
43 If you want to read the documentation online, these are options:
44 * use HTML. Refer to INSTALL.txt for information on how to make the
47 * use HTML. Point your browser to
48 `http://www.cs.uu.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html'.
50 * use `.dvi', for the tutorial and reference manual. Do
52 make -C Documentation/user/ dvi
54 You need a working LilyPond binary to create the DVI and HTML
64 LilyPond is a long way from finished and polished. We do appreciate
65 criticism, comments, bugreports, patches, etc., but please,
67 Please send your e-mail to one of the MAILING LISTS
69 and _not_ to us personally. We have the following mailing lists:
71 * info-gnu-music@gnu.org
72 (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu-music) is a
73 low-volume list for information on the GNU Music project.
74 This list is moderated; ask David R. Linn <drl@gnu.org> or
75 Han-Wen <hanwen@cs.uu.nl> to send announcements for this list.
77 * help-gnu-music@gnu.org
78 (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-music) For help
81 * bug-gnu-music@gnu.org
82 (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gnu-music) If you have
83 bugreports, you should send them to this list.
88 If you have received this file as part of a DOS/Window32 distribution
89 (`LilyPond-*.zip'), it is advisable to also download the source
90 package, since it might contain more documentation
91 `ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/'
93 If you decide to build LilyPond from source, please read the
94 INSTALL.txt document first, especially the Windows NT/95 section.
99 If you have installed a previous version, be sure to remove old font
101 rm `find /var/lib/texmf/fonts -name 'feta*'`
103 a script to do this for you is in `buildscripts/clean-fonts.sh'
108 Send bug reports to <bug-gnu-music@gnu.org>. For help and questions
109 use <help-gnu-music@gnu.org> and <gnu-music-discuss@gnu.org>. Please
110 consult the FAQ and installation instructions before mailing your
116 If you have received LilyPond on a cdrom, chances are that
117 development has moved some patchlevels up. Please check the latest
118 version of LilyPond before reporting bugs.