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.
64 =item B<--postscript, -p>,
66 Try to use PostScript where possible.
72 This is an overview of the features that GNU LilyPond supports. For
73 details on how to use them, you should consult mudela(5).
79 ASCII script input, with identifiers (for music reuse),
80 customizable notenames, customisable fontset.
84 MIDI output lets you check if you have entered the correct notes.
88 MIDI to Mudela conversion through the mi2mu program.
92 Multiple staffs in one score. Each staff can have different meters.
96 Beams, slurs, ties, chords, super/subscripts (accents and text)
97 triplets, general n-plet (triplet, quadruplets, etc.), lyrics,
98 transposition dynamics (both absolute and hairpin style).
102 Multiple voices within one staff; beams optionally shared
103 between voices. Up to four voices is handled cleanly.
107 Multiple scores within one input file. Each score is output to
112 Clef changes, meter changes, cadenza-mode, key changes, repeat bars.
116 =head1 DISCLAIMER AND COPYING POLICY
118 GNU LilyPond is copyright 1996, 1997 by its authors. GNU LilyPond is
119 distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. GNU LilyPond
120 is provided without any warranty what so ever.
121 GNU LilyPond may be freely distributed. For further information consult
122 the GNU General Public License, from the file F<COPYING>.
126 Please consult the documentation file AUTHORS for more detailed
127 information, and small contributions.
133 Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@stack.nl>, http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen
137 Jan Nieuwenhuizen <jan@digicash.com>, http://www.digicash.com/~jan.
145 There is an extensive list of todoes and bugs. See F<TODO>. In
146 general, try to find out
152 If the bug has been fixed in a newer release.
156 If the bug has been found earlier, consult F<TODO> and F<BUGS>.
160 If you have found a bug, then you should send a bugreport.
165 Send a copy of the input which causes the error.
168 Send a description of the platform you use.
171 Send a description of the LilyPond version you use (with
172 compile/configure options please).
175 Send a description of the bug itself.
178 Send it to bug-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu.
182 It does help if you can find out where the bug comes from: if GNU
183 LilyPond bombs out, then please recompile using with debugging info
184 turned on, and send gdb stacktrace of the crash. It also helps if you
185 can print the values of the objects. So if your trace is
189 #0 Interval::operator+= (this=0x11fffec60..)
190 at ../flower/interval.hh:50
191 #1 0x12005195c in Item::width (this=0x14008a680) at src/item.cc:39
192 #2 0x12008fdbc in itemlist_width (its=0x11fffed58 ..
196 Than it would help if you send a dump of the Interval and the Item
197 (use: C<print *this> or use LilyPond C<print()> methods).
204 =item F<lily-init.ly>
206 The initialisation file with symbol tables etc. It
207 includes files from the directory F<init/>.
213 B<LILYINCLUDE> an (one) additional directory for finding lilypond data.
217 Lots of them. See F<TODO> and F<BUGS>
225 On technical details of LilyPond
229 On the input format. This is a LilyPond-enhanced LaTeX document.
233 Goals of the GNU LilyPond project.
237 The GNU LilyPond FAQ list
239 =item http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html
241 GNU LilyPond has her own webpage. This webpage contains the MIDI, GIF
242 and PS files for some standard music files. It also has the complete
243 LilyPond documentation
248 updated very frequently, the latest version is always available at:
249 ftp://pcnov095.win.tue.nl/pub/lilypond and
250 ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/lilypond/
253 For programs which are part of the GNU music project, the following
254 mailing list have been setup:
259 =item info-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
261 For information on the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send mail with
262 subject "subscribe" to info-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
264 =item help-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
266 For help with programs from the GNU music project. To subscribe: send
267 mail with subject "subscribe" to
268 help-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
270 =item bug-gnu-music@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
272 If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list. If you want
273 to read all bugreports, you should subscribe to this list. To
274 subscribe: send mail with subject "subscribe" to
275 bug-gnu-music-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu
277 =item gnu-music-discuss@vuse.vanderbilt.edu,
279 For discussions concerning the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send
280 mail with subject "subscribe" to
281 gnu-music-discuss-request@vuse.vanderbilt.edu,
286 Announces of new versions will be sent to info-gnu-music and
291 GNU LilyPond has no connection with the music package Rosegarden, other
292 than the names being similar :-)
296 (for a detailed changelog, see F<NEWS>)
298 GNU LilyPond's roots lie in MPP, a preprocessor to the rather arcane
299 MusiXTeX macro package for TeX. A friend of mine, Jan Nieuwenhuizen
300 wrote the first 44 versions (0.01 to 0.44), then his program caught my
301 attention, and I was slowly sucked in to the interesting problem of
302 easily producing beautifully printed music. I contributed some
303 code. We soon realised that MPP's design was too fundamentally broken
304 to be repaired, so it was decided to rewrite MPP. We debated a lot about
305 the requirements to an inputformat (fall 1995). I sat down and started
306 with a parser-first, bottom-up rewrite called mpp95 (which totally
309 After long and hard thinking, I came up with an algorithm for the
310 horizontal spacing of multiple staffs (april 1996) I coded it (and did
311 not test it). After starting with this fundamental piece, I slowly
312 added the stages which come before spacing, and after. A half year
313 later, I had a first working version, (october 1996). I announced
314 Patchlevel 0.0.7 (or 8) to the mutex list after asking some technical
315 details on spacing; it was downloaded approximately 4 times. Then I
316 got the hang of it, and in the subsequent two months, I coded until it
317 had doubled in size (pl 23).
319 Most the other history is described in the NEWS file. The first large
320 scale release (0.1) was done after approximately 78 patchlevels on