Provided by: musescore_2.3.2+dfsg4-15build3_amd64 
NAME
mscore, musescore — MuseScore 2 sheet music editor
SYNOPSIS
mscore [-deFfhIiLmnOPRstvw] [-a | --use-audio driver] [-b | --bitrate bitrate]
[-c | --config-folder pathname] [-D | --monitor-resolution DPI]
[-E | --install-extension extension file] [-j | --job file.json]
[-M | --midi-operations file] [-o | --export-to file] [-p | --plugin name]
[-r | --image-resolution DPI] [-S | --style style] [-T | --trim-image margin]
[-x | --gui-scaling factor] [--debug] [--dump-midi-in] [--dump-midi-out]
[--experimental] [--export-score-parts] [--factory-settings] [--force] [--help]
[--layout-debug] [--load-icons] [--long-version] [--new-score] [--no-midi]
[--no-synthesizer] [--no-webview] [--revert-settings] [--template-mode] [--test-mode]
[--version] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
MuseScore is a Free and Open Source WYSIWYG cross-platform multi-lingual music composition
and notation software, released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPLv2).
Running mscore without any extra options launches the full graphical MuseScore program and
opens any files specified on the command line.
The options are as follows:
-a | --use-audio driver
Use audio driver: one of jack, alsa, portaudio, pulse
-b | --bitrate bitrate
Set MP3 output bitrate in kbit/s
-c | --config-folder pathname
Override configuration and settings directory
-D | --monitor-resolution DPI
Specify monitor resolution (override autodetection)
-d | --debug
Start MuseScore in debug mode
-E | --install-extension extension file
Install an extension file; soundfonts are loaded by default unless -e is also
specified
-e | --experimental
Enable experimental features, such as layers
-F | --factory-settings
Use only the standard built-in presets (“factory settings”) and delete user
preferences; compare with the -R option
-f | --force
Ignore score corruption and version mismatch warnings in “converter mode”
-h | --help
Display an overview of invocation instructions
-I | --dump-midi-in
Display all MIDI input on the console
-i | --load-icons
Load icons from the filesystem; useful if you want to edit the MuseScore icons and
preview the changes
-j | --job file.json
Process a conversion job (see EXAMPLES below)
-L | --layout-debug
Start MuseScore in layout debug mode
-M | --midi-operations file
Specify MIDI import operations file (see EXAMPLES below)
-m | --no-midi
Disable MIDI input
-n | --new-score
Start with the New Score wizard regardless whether it's enabled or disabled in the
user preferences
-O | --dump-midi-out
Display all MIDI output on the console
-o | --export-to file
Export the given (or currently opened) file to the specified output file. The file
type depends on the extension of the filename given. This option switches to
“converter mode” and avoids the graphical user interface.
-P | --export-score-parts
When converting to PDF with the -o option, append each part's pages to the created
PDF file. If the score has no parts, all default parts will temporarily be
generated automatically.
-p | --plugin name
Execute the named plugin
-R | --revert-settings
Use only the standard built-in presets (“factory settings”) but do not delete user
preferences; compare with the -F option
-r | --image-resolution DPI
Set image resolution for conversion to PNG files.
Default: 300 DPI (actually, the value of “Resolution” of the PNG option group in the
Export tab of the preferences)
-S | --style style
Load a style file first; useful for use with the -o option
-s | --no-synthesizer
Disable the integrated software synthesiser
-T | --trim-image margin
Trim exported PNG and SVG images to remove whitespace surrounding the score. The
specified margin, in pixels, will be retained (use 0 for a tightly cropped image).
When exporting to SVG, this option only works with single-page scores.
-t | --test-mode
Set test mode flag for all files
-v | --version
Display the name and version of the application without starting the graphical user
interface
-w | --no-webview
Disable the web view component in the Start Centre
-x | --gui-scaling factor
Scale the score display and other GUI elements by the specified factor; intended for
use with high-resolution displays
--long-version
Display the full name, version and git revision of the application without starting
the graphical user interface
--template-mode
Save files in template mode (e.g. without page sizes)
MuseScore supports the automatic Qt command line options (see below).
Batch conversion job JSON format
The argument to the -j option must be the pathname of a file comprised of a valid JSON
document honouring the following specification:
• The top-level element must be a JSONArray, which may be empty.
• Each array element must be a JSONObject with the following keys:
in Value is the name of the input file (score to convert), as JSONString.
plugin Value is the filename of a plugin (with the .qml extension), which will be read
from either the global or per-user plugin path and executed before the
conversion output happens, as JSONString. Optional, but at least one of plugin
and out must be given.
out Value is the conversion output target, as defined below. Optional, but at least
one of plugin and out must be given.
• The conversion output target may be a filename (with extension, which decided the format
to convert to), as JSONString.
• The conversion output target may be a JSONArray of filenames as JSONString, as above,
which will cause the score to be written to multiple output files (in multiple output
formats) sequentially, without being closed, re-opened and re-processed in between.
• If the conversion output target is a JSONArray, one or more of its elements may also be,
each, a JSONArray of two JSONStrings (called first and second half in the following
description). This will cause part extraction: for each such two-tuple, all extant
parts of the score will be saved individually, with filenames being composed by
concatenating the first half, the name (title) of the part, and the second half. The
resulting string must be a valid filename (with extension, determining the output
format). If a score has no parts (excerpts) defined, this will be silently ignored
without error.
• Valid file extensions for output are:
flac Free Lossless Audio Codec (compressed audio)
mid standard MIDI file
mlog internal file sanity check log (JSON)
mp3 MPEG Layer III (lossy compressed audio)
mpos measure positions (XML)
mscx uncompressed MuseScore file
mscz compressed MuseScore file
musicxml uncompressed MusicXML file
mxl compressed MusicXML file
ogg OGG Vorbis (lossy compressed audio)
pdf portable document file (print)
png portable network graphics (image)
Individual files, one per score page, with a hyphen-minus followed by the page
number placed before the file extension, will be generated.
spos segment positions (XML)
svg scalable vector graphics (image)
wav RIFF Waveform (uncompressed audio)
xml uncompressed MusicXML file
See below for an example.
ENVIRONMENT
SKIP_LIBJACK
Set this (the value does not matter) to skip initialisation of the JACK Audio
Connection Kit library, in case it causes trouble.
XDG_CONFIG_HOME
User configuration location; defaults to ~/.config if unset.
XDG_DATA_HOME
User data location; defaults to ~/.local/share if unset.
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR
Location of works the user created with the application; defaults to ~/Documents (or
a localised version) and can be set in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs.
Note that MuseScore also supports the normal Qt environment variables such as
QT_QPA_GENERIC_PLUGINS, QT_QPA_PLATFORM, QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME, QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH,
QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE, DISPLAY, etc.
FILES
/usr/share/mscore-2.3/ contains the application support data (demos, instruments,
localisation, system-wide plugins, soundfonts, styles, chords, templates and wallpapers).
In the Debian packages, system-wide soundfonts are installed into /usr/share/sounds/sf2/,
/usr/share/sounds/sf3/ or /usr/share/sounds/sfz/, respectively, instead.
The per-user data (extensions, plugins, soundfonts, styles, templates) and files (images,
scores) are normally installed into subdirectories under $XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR/MuseScore2/ but
may be changed in the configuration. Note that snapshot, alpha and beta versions use
MuseScore3Development instead of MuseScore2 in all of these paths.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/MuseScore/MuseScore2.ini contains the user preferences, list of recently
used files and their locations, window sizes and positions, etc. See above for development
version paths.
$XDG_DATA_HOME/data/MuseScore/MuseScore2/ contains updated localisation files downloaded
from within the program, plugin information, cached scores, credentials for the
musescore.com community site, session information, synthesiser settings, custom key and time
signatures and shortcuts. See above for development version paths.
EXAMPLES
Convert a score to PDF from the command line:
mscore -o 'My Score.pdf' 'My Score.mscz'
Run a batch job converting multiple documents:
mscore -j job.json
This requires the file job.json in the current working directory to have content similar to
the following:
[
{
"in": "Reunion.mscz",
"out": "Reunion-coloured.pdf",
"plugin": "colornotes.qml"
},
{
"in": "Reunion.mscz",
"out": [
"Reunion.pdf",
[ "Reunion (part for ", ").pdf" ],
"Reunion.musicxml",
"Reunion.mid"
]
},
{
"in": "Piece with excerpts.mscz",
"out": [
"Piece with excerpts (Partitura).pdf",
[ "Piece with excerpts (part for ", ").pdf" ],
"Piece with excerpts.mid"
]
}
]
The last part of the job would, for example, cause files like “Piece with excerpts (part for
Violin).pdf” to be generated alongside the conductor's partitura and a MIDI file with the
full orchestra sound, whereas the equivalent part of the Reunion conversion will be silently
ignored (because the Reunion piece (a MuseScore demo) has no excerpts defined).
https://musescore.org/sites/musescore.org/files/midi_import_options_0.xml is a sample MIDI
import operations file for the -M option.
DIAGNOSTICS
The mscore utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
fluidsynth(1), midicsv(1), timidity(1), qtoptions(7)
https://musescore.org/handbook
Online Handbook, full user manual
https://musescore.org/forum
Support Forum
https://musescore.org/handbook/command-line-options-0
Further documentation of command line options
https://musescore.org/handbook/revert-factory-settings-0
Reverting to factory settings (troubleshooting)
https://musescore.org/project/issues
Project Issue Tracker
Please check first to if the bug you're encountering has already been reported. If
you just need help with something, then please use the support forum (see above)
instead.
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qguiapplication.html#supported-command-line-options
Documentation of automatic Qt command line options
STANDARDS
MuseScore attempts to implement the following standards:
• MusicXML 3.1 (score interchange format)
• SF2 (SoundFont 2.01)
• SF3 (SoundFont with OGG Vorbis-compressed samples)
• SFZ (Sforzato soundfont)
• SMuFL (Standard Music Font Layout 1.18)
HISTORY
MuseScore was split off the MusE sequencer in 2002 and has since become the foremost Open
Source notation software.
AUTHORS
MuseScore is developed by Werner Schweer and others.
This manual page was written by mirabilos <tg@debian.org>.
CAVEATS
The automatic Qt command line options are removed from the argument vector before the
application has a chance at option processing; this means that an invocation like
mscore -S -reverse
has no chance at working because the -reverse is removed by Qt first.
BUGS
MuseScore does not honour /etc/papersize.
Probably some more; check the project's bug tracker (cf. SEE ALSO).