3 lilypond - the GNU music typesetter
7 lilypond [options] [inputfiles]
11 GNU LilyPond which converts music definition files into visual or
12 audio output: it can produce formatted sheet music in TeX and
13 and mechanical perfomances to MIDI files.
19 =item B<-I,--include>=F<FILE>,
21 add F<FILE> to the search path for input files.
30 Turn debugging info. GNU LilyPond will read the file F<.dstreamrc>, which
31 tells for what functions and classes may produce copious debugging
34 =item B<-w,--warranty>,
36 Show the warranty with which GNU LilyPond comes. (It comes with B<NO
39 =item B<-o,--output=>F<FILE>,
41 Set the default output file to F<FILE>.
45 Show a summary of usage
47 =item B<-i,--init=>F<FILE>
49 set init file to F<FILE> (default: F<symbol.ini>)
51 =item B<--include, -I>=F<DIRECTORY>
53 add F<DIRECTORY> to the search path for input files.
59 This is an overview of the features that GNU LilyPond supports. For
60 details on how to use them, you should consult mudela(5)
66 ASCII script input, with identifiers (for music reuse),
67 customizable notenames, customizable fontset
71 MIDI output lets you check if you have entered the correct notes.
75 MIDI to Mudela conversion through the mi2mu program.
79 Multiple staffs in one score. Each staff can have a different meters.
83 beams, slurs, ties, chords, super/subscripts (accents and text),
84 triplets, general n-plet (triplet, quadruplets, etc.), lyrics,
85 transposition dynamics (both absolute and hairpin style)
89 multiple voices within one staff; beams optionally shared
90 between voices. Up to four voices is handled cleanly.
94 multiple scores within one input file. Each score is output to
99 clef changes, meter changes, cadenza-mode, key changes, repeat bars
103 =head1 DISCLAIMER & COPYING POLICY
105 GNU LilyPond is copyright 1996,97 by its authors. GNU LilyPond is
106 distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
107 License. GNU LilyPond is provided without any warranty what so ever.
108 GNU LilyPond may be freely distributed. For further information consult
109 the GNU General Public License, which is in the file F<COPYING>
113 Please consult the documentation file AUTHORS for more detailed
114 information, and small contributions.
120 Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@stack.nl>, http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen
124 Jan Nieuwenhuizen <jan@digicash.com>, http://www.digicash.com/~jan.
132 There is an extensive list of todoes and bugs. See F<TODO>. In
133 general, try to find out
139 if the bug has been fixed in a newer release.
143 if the bug has been found earlier, consult F<TODO> and F<BUGS>
147 If you have found a bug, then you should send a bugreport.
149 - send a copy of the input which causes the error
150 - send a description of the platform you use
151 - send a description of the LilyPond version you use (with
152 compile/config options please)
153 - send a description of the bug itself.
154 - send it to bug-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
156 It does help if you can find out where the bug comes from: if GNU
157 LilyPond bombs out, then please recompile using with debugging info
158 turned on, and send gdb stacktrace of the crash. It also helps if you
159 can print the values of the objects. So if your trace is
163 #0 Interval::operator+= (this=0x11fffec60..)
164 at ../flower/interval.hh:50
165 #1 0x12005195c in Item::width (this=0x14008a680) at src/item.cc:39
166 #2 0x12008fdbc in itemlist_width (its=0x11fffed58 ..
170 Than it would help if you send a dump of the Interval and the Item
171 (use: C<print *this> or use LilyPond C<print()> methods).
180 The initialisation file with symbol tables etc. It
181 includes files from the directory F<init/>.
187 B<LILYINCLUDE> an (one) additional directory for finding lilypond data.
197 On technical details of LilyPond
205 Goals of the GNU LilyPond project.
209 The GNU LilyPond FAQ list
213 The GNU Music project. GNU LilyPond is part of the GNU Music
214 project. For more information on the GNU Music project,
216 =item http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html
218 GNU LilyPond has her own webpage. This webpage contains the MIDI, GIF
219 and PS files for some standard music files. It also has the complete
220 LilyPond documentation
226 updated very frequently, the latest version is always available at:
227 ftp://pcnov095.win.tue.nl/pub/lilypond.
229 For programs which are part of the GNU music project, the following
230 mailing list have been setup:
235 =item info-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
237 For information on the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send mail with
238 subject "subscribe" to info-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
240 =item help-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
242 For help with programs from the GNU music project. To subscribe: send
243 mail with subject "subscribe" to
244 help-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
246 =item bug-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
248 If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list. If you want
249 to read all bugreports, you should subscribe to this list. To
250 subscribe: send mail with subject "subscribe" to
251 bug-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
253 =item gnu-music-discuss@vuse.vanderbilt.edu,
255 For discussions concerning the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send
256 mail with subject "subscribe" to
257 gnu-music-discuss-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu,
262 Announces of new versions will be sent to info-gnu-music and
267 GNU LilyPond has no connection with the music package Rosegarden, other
268 than the names being similar :-)
272 (for a detailed changelog, see F<NEWS>)
274 GNU LilyPond's roots lie in MPP, a preprocessor to the rather arcane
275 MusiXTeX macro package for TeX. A friend of mine, Jan Nieuwenhuizen
276 wrote the first 44 versions (0.01 to 0.44), then his program caught my
277 attention, and I was slowly sucked in to the interesting problem of
278 easily producing beautifully printed music. I contributed some
279 code. We soon realised that MPP's design was too fundamentally broken
280 to be repaired, so it was decided to rewrite MPP. We debated a lot about
281 the requirements to an inputformat (fall 1995). I sat down and started
282 with a parser-first, bottom-up rewrite called mpp95 (which totally
285 After long and hard thinking, I came up with an algorithm for the
286 horizontal spacing of multiple staffs (april 1996) I coded it (and did
287 not test it). After starting with this fundamental piece, I slowly
288 added the stages which come before spacing, and after. A half year
289 later, I had a first working version, (october 1996). I announced
290 Patchlevel 0.0.7 (or 8) to the mutex list after asking some technical
291 details on spacing; it was downloaded approximately 4 times. Then I
292 got the hang of it, and in the subsequent two months, I coded until it
293 had doubled in size (pl 23).
295 The first large scale release (0.1) was planned after approximately 80
296 patchlevels on August 1, 1997.