## Toplevel README

## 1 Toplevel README

LilyPond is a music typesetter. It produces beautiful sheet music using a description file as input. LilyPond is part of the GNU Project.

### 1.1 Versioning

LilyPond uses a versioning scheme similar to the Linux kernel. In a version "x.y.z", an even second number 'y' denotes a stable version. For development versions 'y' is odd.

### 1.2 Downloading

The primary download site for sourcecode is http://lilypond.org/download/.

If you have a slow connection, then you are advised to use xdelta for patching source archives; Xdelta (.xd) files are supplied on the FTP site.

### 1.3 Compilation

For compiling and running LilyPond see the installation instructions. These instructions can be found when you unpack lilypond, as lilypond-x.y.z/INSTALL.txt. They are also available on the web at http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.1/Documentation/topdocs/out-www/INSTALL.html.

NOTE: If you downloaded a binary (.rpm) or use the Cygwin setup.exe program, then you don't have to compile LilyPond.

### 1.4 Documentation

The documentation is available online at http://www.lilypond.org/doc/.

You can also build it locally: follow the instructions under `Building documentation' in the installation instructions.

### 1.5 Comments

Send your criticism, comments, bugreports, patches, etc. to the mailing list, not to us personally.

We have the following mailing lists:

- info-lilypond@gnu.org is a low-volume list for information on LilyPond project. This list is moderated; ask David R. Linn or Han-Wen to send announcements for this list.
- lilypond-devel@gnu.org for discussions about developing LilyPond, in particular the unstable series.
- lilypond-user@gnu.org for discussions about using LilyPond, in particular the stable series.
- bug-lilypond@gnu.org for sending bugreports.
- lilypond-cvs@gnu.org for commit messages in CVS development. This is a high-volume moderated list.

You can search the lists from the following page: searching facilities.

### 1.6 Caveats

If you have installed a previous version, be sure to remove old font files, e.g.,

         	rm `find /var/lib/texmf/fonts -name 'feta*'`

a script to do this is left after compiling in buildscripts/out/clean-fonts.

### 1.7 Bugs

Send bug reports to bug-lilypond@gnu.org. For help and questions use lilypond-user@gnu.org.

Read comments on this page, or add one. This page is for LilyPond-2.2.2 (stable-branch).