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

          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.

          indent-tabs [false]
                 whether to use tabs for indent

          indent-width [2]
                 how many spaces for each indent level (if not using tabs)

          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.

       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

       2015, Wilbert Berendsen