GNU LilyPond

README

Toplevel README

LilyPond is a music typesetter. It produces beautiful sheet music using a 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 xdelta for patching source archives; Xdelta (.xd) files are supplied on the FTP site.

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 use the Cygwin setup.exe program, then 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 documentation 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 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 For discussions about developing lilypond, in particular the unstable series.
• lilypond-user@gnu.org For discussions about using lilypond, in particular the stable series.
• bug-lilypond@gnu.org If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list.
• lilypond-cvs@gnu.org Commit messages for CVS development. This is a high-volume moderated list.

You can search the lists from the following page: searching facilities.

Caveats

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

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

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.

Please send GNU LilyPond questions and comments to lilypond-user@gnu.org.

Please send comments on these web pages to (address unknown)

Copyright (c) 1997--2002 Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen.

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.