This is the toplevel README to LilyPond
***************************************

LilyPond is a music typesetter.  It produces beautiful sheet music using a high level description file as input.  LilyPond is part of the GNU Project.

Versioning
==========

LilyPond uses a versioning scheme similar to the Linux kernel.  In a version "x.y.z", an even second number 'y' denotes a stable version. For development versions 'y' is odd.

Version 1.6 is the latest stable release.

Downloading
===========

The primary download site for sourcecode is ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/.

If you have a slow connection, then you are advised to use ftp://ftp.xcf.berkeley.edu/pub/xdelta/ (xdelta) for patching source archives; Xdelta (.xd) files are supplied on the website.

Compilation
===========

For compiling and running LilyPond please refer to the installation instructions.  These instructions can be found when you unpack lilypond, as lilypond-x.y.z/INSTALL.txt. They are also available on the web at http://lilypond.org/Documentation/topdocs/out-www/INSTALL.html.

NOTE: If you downloaded a binary (.rpm or a W95/NT .zip file), you don't have to compile LilyPond.

Documentation
=============

The documentation is available online at http://www.lilypond.org/Documentation/out-www/index.html.

You can also build it locally: follow the instructions under `Building website' in the installation instructions.

Comments
========

LilyPond is a long way from finished so we appreciate your criticism, comments, bugreports, patches, etc. Please send them to the mailing list, not to us personally.

We have the following mailing lists:

  * info-lilypond@gnu.org (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-lilypond) is a low-volume list for information on the GNU Music project. This list is moderated; ask David R. Linn or Han-Wen to send announcements for this list.

  * lilypond-devel@gnu.org (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-devel) For discussions about developing lilypond, in particular the unstable series.

  * lilypond-user@gnu.org (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user) For discussions about using lilypond, in particular the stable series.

  * bug-lilypond@gnu.org (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-lilypond) If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list.

  * lilypond-cvs@gnu.org (http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-cvs) Commit messages for CVS development. This is a high-volume moderated list.

You can search the lists from the following page: searching facilities (http://lilypond.org/search).

Windows 32
==========

If you have received this file as part of a DOS/Window32 distribution (LilyPond-*.zip), it is advisable to also download the source package (ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/GNU/LilyPond/), since it might contain more documentation

Caveats
=======

If you have installed a previous version, be sure to remove old font files, eg.,

     rm `find /var/lib/texmf/fonts -name 'feta*'`

a script to do this for you is left buildscripts/out/clean-fonts

Bugs
====

Send bug reports to bug-lilypond@gnu.org.  For help and questions use lilypond-user@gnu.org.  Please consult the documentation before mailing your problems.