LILYPOND(1)

📦
version 2.26.0 · 9 versions
, in alpine 3.24

💅 LILYPOND(1) — the manual page, bestie edition 💅

okay so real talk: this is the manual page for LilyPond 2.26.0 (running Guile 3.0), and it lives in the User Commands section of the manual. it's giving "I typeset music for a living and I'm booked and busy." let's get into it 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

LilyPond — manual page for LilyPond 2.26.0 (running Guile 3.0). no cap, that's the whole name section, she's short and sweet 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

lilypond [OPTION]... FILE...

that's it. that's the whole vibe. options, then a file. periodt ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what does she do? she typesets music and/or produces MIDI from FILE. both. at once. main character energy honestly 👑

LilyPond produces beautiful music notation. like, actually gorgeous. that's not me being biased, that's just facts. for more information, see https://lilypond.org 🫶

💅 OPTIONS 💅

okay bestie, here's the full list, i'm not skipping a single one, we don't do that here 🙈

  • -f, --formats=FORMATs — dump FORMAT,... — and hiii, you can also use these as separate options 👇
    • --pdf — generate PDF files (this is the default, she's the moment)
    • --svg — generate SVG files
    • --png — generate PNG files
    • --ps — generate PostScript files
  • -E, --eps — generate Encapsulated PostScript files
  • -O, --pspdfopt=KEY — set ps/pdf optimization to KEY, and KEY is either 'size' (the default, obvi), 'TeX', or 'TeX-GS'
  • -d, --define-default=SYM[=VAL] — set Scheme option SYM to VAL (default: '#t')
  • -d, --define-default=no-SYM — set Scheme option SYM to '#f'. yeah the no- prefix flips it to false, cute right? 💜
  • -d, --define-default=help — show help for Scheme options
  • -e, --evaluate=EXPR — evaluate scheme code. living dangerously, i respect it 🔥
  • -h, --help — show this help and exit
  • -H, --header=FIELD — dump \header field FIELD to a file named BASENAME.FIELD
  • -I, --include=DIR — append DIR to the search path
  • -i, --init=FILE — use FILE as init file
  • -j, --jail=USER,GROUP,JAIL,DIR — chroot to JAIL, become USER:GROUP, and cd into DIR. yes she can do all that in one flag, she's built different 🧚
  • -l, --loglevel=LOGLEVEL — print log messages according to LOGLEVEL, which is either NONE, ERROR, WARN, BASIC, PROGRESS, INFO (the default), or DEBUG
  • -o, --output=FILE — write output to FILE (a suffix will be added 🎀) or to FOLDER, in which case the file name will be taken from the input file.
  • --relocate — (ignored). she's literally just standing there. iconic 💀
  • -s, --silent — no progress, only error messages (equivalent to --loglevel=ERROR)
  • -v, --version — show version number and exit
  • -V, --verbose — be verbose (equivalent to --loglevel=DEBUG)
  • -w, --warranty — show warranty and copyright
bestie. you found a bug? 🐛 it happens to the best of us. please read https://lilypond.org/bug-reports.html — they wanna hear about it fr fr

🗂️ Top-level directory of LilyPond's data tree

'/usr/share/lilypond/2.26.0'

that's where all her stuff lives. memorize it or don't, she's not gonna quiz you 💖

Copyright © 1996--2026 by

Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@xs4all.nl> Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> and others.

This program is free software. It is covered by the GNU General Public License and you are welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions. Invoke as lilypond --warranty for more information.

(translation: she's free, she's open, she's legally yours to remix. slay 🫶)

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

The full documentation for LilyPond is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and LilyPond programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info LilyPond

should give you access to the complete manual. go read it, i believe in you ✨

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 written by LilyPond 2.26.0 (running Guile 3.0), dated May 2026, filed under LILYPOND(1) — now go typeset something gorgeous, you absolute icon 🎀🌸🦋

📦 where this page comes from