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1.2 Command-line usage

This section contains extra information about using LilyPond on the command-line. This may be desirable to pass extra options to the program. In addition, there are certain extra ‘helper’ programs (such as midi2ly) which are only available on the command-line.

By ‘command-line’, we mean the command line in the operating system. Windows users might be more familiar with the terms ‘DOS shell’ or ‘command shell’. MacOS X users might be more familiar with the terms ‘terminal’ or ‘console’. Some additional setup is required for MacOS X users; please see MacOS X.

Describing how to use this part of an operating system is outside the scope of this manual; please consult other documentation on this topic if you are unfamiliar with the command-line.

Invoking lilypond  
Command line options for lilypond  
Environment variables  
LilyPond in chroot jail  
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Invoking lilypond

The lilypond executable may be called as follows from the command line. 

lilypond [option]… file…

When invoked with a filename that has no extension, the ‘.ly’ extension is tried first. To read input from stdin, use a dash (-) for file.

When ‘filename.ly’ is processed it will produce ‘filename.ps’ and ‘filename.pdf’ as output. Several files can be specified; they will each be processed independently. 1

If ‘filename.ly’ contains more than one \book block, then the rest of the scores will be output in numbered files, starting with ‘filename-1.pdf’. In addition, the value of output-suffix will be inserted between the basename and the number. An input file containing 

#(define output-suffix "violin")
\score { … }
#(define output-suffix "cello")
\score { … }

will output base‘-violin.pdf’ and base‘-cello-1.pdf’.

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Standard shell commands

If your shell (i.e. command window) supports normal redirects, then you might find it useful to use the following commands to redirect console output to a file:

Consult the documentation for your shell to see if it supports these options, or if the syntax is different. Note that these are shell commands and have nothing to do with lilypond.

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Command line options for lilypond

The following options are supported:

-e,--evaluate=expr

Evaluate the Scheme expr before parsing any ‘.ly’ files. Multiple -e options may be given, they will be evaluated sequentially.

The expression will be evaluated in the guile-user module, so if you want to use definitions in expr, use 

lilypond -e '(define-public a 42)'

on the command-line, and include 

#(use-modules (guile-user))

at the top of the .ly file.

-f,--format=format

which formats should be written. Choices for format are ps, pdf, and png.

Example: lilypond -fpng filename.ly

-d,--define-default=var=val

This sets the internal program option var to the Scheme value val. If val is not supplied, then #t is used. To switch off an option, no- may be prefixed to var, e.g. 

-dno-point-and-click

is the same as 

-dpoint-and-click='#f'

Here are a few interesting options.

‘help’

Running lilypond -dhelp will print all of the -d options available.

‘paper-size’

This option sets the default paper-size, 

-dpaper-size=\"letter\"

Note that the string must be enclosed in escaped quotes ( \" ).

‘safe’

Do not trust the .ly input.

When LilyPond formatting is available through a web server, either the --safe or the --jail option MUST be passed. The --safe option will prevent inline Scheme code from wreaking havoc, for example 

#(system "rm -rf /")
{
  c4^#(ly:export (ly:gulp-file "/etc/passwd"))
}

The -dsafe option works by evaluating in-line Scheme expressions in a special safe module. This safe module is derived from GUILE ‘safe-r5rs’ module, but adds a number of functions of the LilyPond API. These functions are listed in ‘scm/safe-lily.scm’.

In addition, safe mode disallows \include directives and disables the use of backslashes in TeX strings.

In safe mode, it is not possible to import LilyPond variables into Scheme.

-dsafe does not detect resource overuse. It is still possible to make the program hang indefinitely, for example by feeding cyclic data structures into the backend. Therefore, if using LilyPond on a publicly accessible webserver, the process should be limited in both CPU and memory usage.

The safe mode will prevent many useful LilyPond snippets from being compiled. The --jail is a more secure alternative, but requires more work to set up.

‘backend’

the output format to use for the back-end. Choices for format are

ps

for PostScript.

Postscript files include TTF, Type1 and OTF fonts. No subsetting of these fonts is done. When using oriental character sets, this can lead to huge files.

eps

for encapsulated PostScript. This dumps every page (system) as a separate ‘EPS’ file, without fonts, and as one collated ‘EPS’ file with all pages (systems) including fonts.

This mode is used by default by lilypond-book.

svg

for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics).

This creates a single SVG file, without embedded fonts, for every page of output. It is recommended to install the Century Schoolbook fonts, included with your LilyPond installation, for optimal rendering. Under UNIX, simply copy these fonts from the LilyPond directory (typically ‘/usr/share/lilypond/VERSION/fonts/otf/’) to ‘~/.fonts/’. The SVG output should be compatible with any SVG editor or user agent.

scm

for a dump of the raw, internal Scheme-based drawing commands.

null

do not output a printed score; has the same effect as -dno-print-pages.

Example: lilypond -dbackend=svg filename.ly

‘preview’

Generate an output file containing the titles and the first system of music. If \bookpart blocks are used, the titles and first system of every \bookpart will appear in the output. The ps, eps, and svg backends support this option.

‘print-pages’

Generate the full pages, the default. -dno-print-pages is useful in combination with -dpreview.

-h,--help

Show a summary of usage.

-H,--header=FIELD

Dump a header field to file ‘BASENAME.FIELD’.

--include, -I=directory

Add directory to the search path for input files.

Multiple -I options may be given. The search will start in the first defined directory, and if the file to be included is not found the search will continue in subsequent directories.

-i,--init=file

Set init file to file (default: ‘init.ly’).

-o,--output=FILE or FOLDER

Set the default output file to FILE or, if a folder with that name exists, direct the output to FOLDER, taking the file name from the input file. The appropriate suffix will be added (e.g. .pdf for pdf) in both cases.

--ps

Generate PostScript.

--png

Generate pictures of each page, in PNG format. This implies --ps. The resolution in DPI of the image may be set with 

-dresolution=110
--pdf

Generate PDF. This implies --ps.

-j,--jail=user,group,jail,dir

Run lilypond in a chroot jail.

The --jail option provides a more flexible alternative to --safe when LilyPond formatting is available through a web server or whenever LilyPond executes externally provided sources.

The --jail option works by changing the root of lilypond to jail just before starting the actual compilation process. The user and group are then changed to match those provided, and the current directory is changed to dir. This setup guarantees that it is not possible (at least in theory) to escape from the jail. Note that for --jail to work lilypond must be run as root, which is usually accomplished in a safe way using sudo.

Setting up a jail is a slightly delicate matter, as we must be sure that LilyPond is able to find whatever it needs to compile the source inside the jail. A typical setup comprises the following items:

Setting up a separate filesystem

A separate filesystem should be created for LilyPond, so that it can be mounted with safe options such as noexec, nodev, and nosuid. In this way, it is impossible to run executables or to write directly to a device from LilyPond. If you do not want to create a separate partition, just create a file of reasonable size and use it to mount a loop device. A separate filesystem also guarantees that LilyPond cannot write more space than it is allowed.

Setting up a separate user

A separate user and group (say, lily/lily) with low privileges should be used to run LilyPond inside the jail. There should be a single directory writable by this user, which should be passed in dir.

Preparing the jail

LilyPond needs to read a number of files while running. All these files are to be copied into the jail, under the same path they appear in the real root filesystem. The entire content of the LilyPond installation (e.g., ‘/usr/share/lilypond’) should be copied.

If problems arise, the simplest way to trace them down is to run LilyPond using strace, which will allow you to determine which files are missing.

Running LilyPond

In a jail mounted with noexec it is impossible to execute any external program. Therefore LilyPond must be run with a backend that does not require any such program. As we already mentioned, it must be also run with superuser privileges (which, of course, it will lose immediately), possibly using sudo. It is a good idea to limit the number of seconds of CPU time LilyPond can use (e.g., using ulimit -t), and, if your operating system supports it, the amount of memory that can be allocated.

-v,--version

Show version information.

-V,--verbose

Be verbose: show full paths of all files read, and give timing information.

-w,--warranty

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

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Environment variables

lilypond recognizes the following environment variables:

LILYPOND_DATADIR

This specifies a directory where locale messages and data files will be looked up by default. The directory should contain subdirectories called ‘ly/’, ‘ps/’, ‘tex/’, etc.

LANG

This selects the language for the warning messages.

LILYPOND_GC_YIELD

With this variable the memory footprint and performance can be adjusted. It is a percentage tunes memory management behavior. With higher values, the program uses more memory, with smaller values, it uses more CPU time. The default value is 70.

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LilyPond in chroot jail

Setting up the server to run LilyPond in a chroot jail is a complicated task. The steps are listed below. Examples in the steps are from Ubuntu Linux, and may require the use of sudo as appropriate.

Example script for 32-bit Ubuntu 8.04

#!/bin/sh
## defaults set here

username=lily
home=/home
loopdevice=/dev/loop0
jaildir=/mnt/lilyloop
# the prefix (without the leading slash!)
lilyprefix=usr/local
# the directory where lilypond is installed on the system
lilydir=/$lilyprefix/lilypond/

userhome=$home/$username
loopfile=$userhome/loopfile
adduser $username
dd if=/dev/zero of=$loopfile bs=1k count=200000
mkdir $jaildir
losetup $loopdevice $loopfile
mkfs -t ext3 $loopdevice 200000
mount -t ext3 $loopdevice $jaildir
mkdir $jaildir/lilyhome
chown $username $jaildir/lilyhome
cd $jaildir

mkdir -p bin usr/bin usr/share usr/lib usr/share/fonts $lilyprefix tmp
chmod a+w tmp

cp -r -L $lilydir $lilyprefix
cp -L /bin/sh /bin/rm bin
cp -L /usr/bin/convert /usr/bin/gs usr/bin
cp -L /usr/share/fonts/truetype usr/share/fonts

# Now the library copying magic
for i in "$lilydir/usr/bin/lilypond" "$lilydir/usr/bin/guile" "/bin/sh"  \
  "/bin/rm" "/usr/bin/gs" "/usr/bin/convert"; do ldd $i | sed 's/.*=>  \
    \/\(.*\/\)\([^(]*\).*/mkdir -p \1 \&\& cp -L \/\1\2 \1\2/' | sed  \
      's/\t\/\(.*\/\)\(.*\) (.*)$/mkdir -p \1 \&\& cp -L \/\1\2 \1\2/'  \
        | sed '/.*=>.*/d'; done | sh -s

# The shared files for ghostscript...
      cp -L -r /usr/share/ghostscript usr/share
# The shared files for ImageMagick
      cp -L -r /usr/lib/ImageMagick* usr/lib

### Now, assuming that you have test.ly in /mnt/lilyloop/lilyhome,
### you should be able to run:
### Note that /$lilyprefix/bin/lilypond is a script, which sets the
### LD_LIBRARY_PATH - this is crucial
      /$lilyprefix/bin/lilypond -jlily,lily,/mnt/lilyloop,/lilyhome test.ly

Footnotes

[1] The status of GUILE is not reset after processing a .ly file, so be careful not to change any system defaults from within Scheme.

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Deze pagina is voor LilyPond-2.13.45 (ontwikkelingstak).

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LilyPond — Usage

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