=head1 NAME

lilypond - the GNU music typesetter

=head1 SYNOPSIS

	lilypond [options] [inputfiles]

=head1 DESCRIPTION

LilyPond is the GNU Project music typesetter.  The program generates
visual or auditive output from a music definition file: it can typeset 
formatted sheet music to a TeX file and play (mechanical) performances 
to a MIDI file.

=head1 OPTIONS

=over 5

=item B<-I,--include>=F<FILE>,

add F<FILE> to the search path for input files.

=item B<-M,--midi>

This disables TeX output. If you have a \midi definition, it will do
the midi output only.

=item B<-d,--debug>,

Turn debugging info on.  GNU LilyPond reads the file F<.dstreamrc>, 
which lists what functions and classes may produce copious debugging
output.

=item B<-t,--test>,

Switch on any experimental features.  Not for general public use.

=item B<-w,--warranty>,

Show the warranty with which GNU LilyPond comes. (It comes with B<NO
WARRANTY>!)

=item B<-o,--output=>F<FILE>,

Set the default output file to F<FILE>.

=item B<-h,--help>,

Show a summary of usage.

=item B<-i,--init=>F<FILE>,

Set init file to F<FILE> (default: F<lily-init.ly>).

=item B<--include, -I>=F<DIRECTORY>,

Add F<DIRECTORY> to the search path for input files.

=item B<--ignore-version, -V>,

Make incompatible mudela version non-fatal.

=item B<--no-postscript, -P>,

Don't generate embedded PostScript (or MetaFont) symbols, but resort to
less beautiful fixed-size versions.

LilyPond uses PostScript for variable symbols where possible.  (For some 
of these symbols runtime MetaFont source will be genarated too.  These are 
not used unless you also include the appropriate  TeX file too.  See 
F<tex/fetdefs.tex>.)

=back

=head1 FEATURES

This is an overview of the features that GNU LilyPond supports.  For
details on how to use them, you should consult mudela(5).

=over 5

=item *

ASCII script input, with identifiers (for music reuse),
customizable notenames, customisable fontset.

=item *

MIDI output lets you check if you have entered the correct notes.

=item *

MIDI to Mudela conversion through the mi2mu program.

=item *

Multiple staffs in one score.  Each staff can have different meters.

=item *

Beams, slurs, ties, chords, super/subscripts (accents and text)
triplets, general n-plet (triplet, quadruplets, etc.), lyrics,
transposition dynamics (both absolute and hairpin style).

=item *

Multiple voices within one staff; beams optionally shared
between voices.  Up to four voices is handled cleanly.

=item *

Multiple scores within one input file.  Each score is output to
a different file.

=item *

Clef changes, meter changes, cadenza-mode, key changes, repeat bars.

=back

=head1 DISCLAIMER AND COPYING POLICY

GNU LilyPond is copyright 1996, 1997 by its authors.  GNU LilyPond is
distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.  GNU LilyPond 
is provided without any warranty what so ever.
GNU LilyPond may be freely distributed.  For further information consult 
the GNU General Public License, from the file F<COPYING>.

=head1 AUTHORS

Please consult the documentation file AUTHORS for more detailed
information, and small contributions. 

=over 4

=item *

Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@stack.nl>, http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen

=item *

Jan Nieuwenhuizen <jan@digicash.com>,  http://www.digicash.com/~jan.

=back


=head1 PROBLEMS


There is an extensive list of todoes and bugs.  See F<TODO>.  If you
have a problem you should try to find out

=over 4

=item *

If the bug has been fixed in a newer release.  

=item *

If the bug has been found earlier, consult F<TODO> and F<BUGS>.

=back 

If you have found a bug, then you should send a bugreport.

=over 4

=item *
Send a copy of the input which causes the error.

=item *
Send a description of the platform you use.

=item *
Send a description of the LilyPond version you use (with
compile/configure options please).

=item *
Send a description of the bug itself.

=item *
Send it to bug-gnu-music@gnu.org (you don't have to subscribe
to this mailinglist).

=back

It does help if you can find out where the bug comes from: if GNU
LilyPond bombs out, then please recompile using with debugging info
turned on, and send gdb stacktrace of the crash.  It also helps if you
can print the values of the objects.  So if your trace is

	received SIGSEGV 
	(gdb) backtrace 12
	#0  Interval::operator+= (this=0x11fffec60..)
	    at ../flower/interval.hh:50
	#1  0x12005195c in Item::width (this=0x14008a680) at src/item.cc:39
	#2  0x12008fdbc in itemlist_width (its=0x11fffed58 ..
	  :
	  :

Than it would help if you send a dump of the Interval and the Item
(use: C<print *this> or use LilyPond C<print()> methods).


=head1 FILES

=over 5

=item F<lily-init.ly>

The initialisation file with symbol tables etc.  It
includes files from the directory F<init/>.

=back

=head1 ENVIRONMENT

B<LILYINCLUDE> an (one) additional directory for finding lilypond data.

=head1 BUGS

Lots of them.  See F<TODO> and F<BUGS>

=head1 SEE ALSO

=over 4

=item internals

On technical details of LilyPond

=item mudela-man

On the input format.  This is a LilyPond-enhanced LaTeX document.

=item MANIFESTO

Goals of the GNU LilyPond project.

=item FAQ

The GNU LilyPond FAQ list

=item http://www.stack.nl/~hanwen/lilypond/index.html

GNU LilyPond has her own webpage.  This webpage contains the MIDI, GIF
and PS files for some standard music files.  It also has the complete
LilyPond documentation

=back

GNU LilyPond is
updated very frequently, the latest version is always available at:
ftp://pcnov095.win.tue.nl/pub/lilypond and
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/lilypond/


For programs which are part of the GNU music project, the following
mailing list have been setup:


=over 4

=item info-gnu-music@gnu.org

For information on the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send mail with
subject "subscribe" to info-gnu-music-request@gnu.org

=item help-gnu-music@gnu.org

For help with programs from the GNU music project.  To subscribe: send
mail with subject "subscribe" to
help-gnu-music-request@gnu.org

=item bug-gnu-music@gnu.org

If you have bugreports, you should send them to this list.  If you want
to read all bugreports, you should subscribe to this list.  To
subscribe: send mail with subject "subscribe" to
bug-gnu-music-request@gnu.org

=item gnu-music-discuss@gnu.org,

For discussions concerning the GNU Music project, to subscribe: send
mail with subject "subscribe" to
gnu-music-discuss-request@gnu.org,


=back

Announces of new versions will be sent to info-gnu-music and
gnu-music-discuss.

=head1  REMARKS

GNU LilyPond has no connection with the music package Rosegarden, other
than the names being similar :-)

=head1 HISTORY

(for a  detailed changelog, see F<NEWS>)

GNU LilyPond's roots lie in MPP, a preprocessor to the rather arcane
MusiXTeX macro package for TeX.  A friend of mine, Jan Nieuwenhuizen
wrote the first 44 versions (0.01 to 0.44), then his program caught my
attention, and I was slowly sucked in to the interesting problem of
easily producing beautifully printed music.  I contributed some
code.  We soon realised that MPP's design was too fundamentally broken
to be repaired, so it was decided to rewrite MPP.  We debated a lot about
the requirements to an inputformat (fall 1995).  I sat down and started
with a parser-first, bottom-up rewrite called mpp95 (which totally
failed, obviously).

After long and hard thinking, I came up with an algorithm for the
horizontal spacing of multiple staffs (april 1996) I coded it (and did
not test it).  After starting with this fundamental piece, I slowly
added the stages which come before spacing, and after.  A half year
later, I had a first working version, (october 1996).  I announced
Patchlevel 0.0.7 (or 8) to the mutex list after asking some technical
details on spacing; it was downloaded approximately 4 times.  Then I
got the hang of it, and in the subsequent two months, I coded until it
had doubled in size (pl 23).

Most the other history is described in the NEWS file.  The first large
scale release (0.1) was done after approximately 78 patchlevels on
August 1, 1997.

