Provided by: python3-ly_0.9.5-3_all 
NAME
ly - Manipulate LilyPond source files
Usage:
ly [options] commands file, ...
A tool for manipulating LilyPond source files
OPTIONS
-v, --version
show version number and exit
-h, --help
show this help text and exit
-i, --in-place
overwrite input files
-o,--output NAME
output file name
-e,--encoding ENC
(input) encoding (default UTF-8)
--output-encoding ENC
output encoding (default to input encoding)
-l,--language NAME
default pitch name language (default to “nederlands”)
-d <variable=value>
set a variable
The special option -- considers the remaining arguments to be file names.
ARGUMENTS
The command is one argument with semicolon-separated commands. In most cases you’ll quote the command so
that it is seen as one argument.
You can specify more than one LilyPond file. If you want to process many files and write the results of
the operations on each file to a separate output file, you can use two special characters in the output
filename: a ‘*’ will be replaced with the full path name of the current input file (without extension),
and a ‘?’ will be replaced with the input filename (without path and extension). If you don’t want to
have ‘*’ or ‘?’ replaced in the output filename, you can set -d replace-pattern=false.
If you don’t specify input or output filenames, standard input is read and standard output is written to.
COMMANDS
Informative commands that write information to standard output and do not change the file:
mode print the mode (guessing if not given) of the document
version
print the LilyPond version, if set in the document
language
print the pitch name language, if set in the document
Commands that change the file:
indent re-indent the file
reformat
reformat the file
translate <language>
translate the pitch names to the language
transpose <from> <to>
transpose the file like LilyPond would do, pitches are given in the ‘nederlands’ language
abs2rel
convert absolute music to relative
rel2abs
convert relative music to absolute
simplify-accidentals
replace notes with accidentals as much as possible with their natural neighbors
write [filename]
write the file to the given filename or the output variable. If the last command was an editing
command, write is automatically called.
Commands that export the file to another format:
musicxml [filename]
export to MusicXML (in development, far from complete)
highlight [filename]
export the document as syntax colored HTML
hl [filename]
alias for highlight
Between commands, you can set or unset a variable using:
variable=value
set a variable to value. Special values are true, false, which are interpreted as boolean
values, or digits, which will be interpreted as integer values.
variable=
unset a variable
VARIABLES
The following variables can be set to influence the behaviour of commands. If there is a default value,
it is written between brackets:
mode mode of the file to read (default automatic) can be one of: lilypond, scheme, latex, html,
docbook, texinfo.
output [-]
the output filename (also set by -o argument)
encoding [UTF-8]
encoding to read (also set by -e argument)
default-language [nederlands]
the pitch names language to use by default, when not specified otherwise in the document
output-encoding
encoding to write (defaults to encoding, also set by the --output-encoding argument)
in-place [false]
whether to overwrite input files (same as -i)
backup-suffix [~]
suffix to use when editing files in-place, if set, backs up the original file before
overwriting it
replace-pattern [true]
whether to replace ‘*’ and ‘?’ in the output filename.
rel-startpitch [true]
whether to write relative music with a startpitch
rel-absolute
whether to assume that the first pitch in a relative expression without specified startpitch is
absolute. If false, it is assumed to be relative to c'. If true, it is assumed to be absolute
(in fact relative to f. If not set, this variable defaults to true only when the LilyPond
version in the document >= 2.18.
indent-tabs [false]
whether to use tabs for indent
indent-width [2]
how many spaces for each indent level (if not using tabs)
full-html [True]
if set to True a full document with syntax-highlighted HTML will be exported, otherwise only
the bare content wrapped in an element configured by the wrapper- variables.
stylesheet
filename to reference as an external stylesheet for syntax-highlighted HTML. This filename is
literally used in the <link rel="stylesheet"> tag.
inline-style [false]
whether to use inline style attributes for syntax-highlighted HTML. By default a css
stylesheet is embedded.
number-lines [false]
whether to add line numbers when creating syntax-highlighted HTML.
wrapper-tag [pre]
which tag syntax highlighted HTML will be wrapped in. Possible values: div, pre, id and code
wrapper-attribute [class]
attribute used for the wrapper tag. Possible values: id and class.
document-id [lilypond]
name applied to the wrapper-attribute. If the three last options use their default settings
the highlighted HTML elements are wrapped in an element <pre class="lilypond"></pre>
linenumbers-id [linenumbers]
if linenumbers are exported this is the name used for the <td> elements
These variables influence the output of information commands:
with-filename
prints the filename next to information like version, etc. This is true by default if there is
more than one file specified.
EXAMPLES
Here is an example to re-indent and transpose a LilyPond file:
ly "indent; transpose c d" -o output.ly file.ly
Examples using the ‘*’ in the output file name:
ly "transpose c d" *.ly -o '*-transposed.ly'
ly highlight *.ly -o 'html/?.html'
AUTHOR
Wilbert Berendsen
COPYRIGHT
2019, Wilbert Berendsen