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3.1.3 File structure
A .ly
file may contain any number of toplevel expressions, where a
toplevel expression is one of the following:
-
An output definition, such as
\paper
,\midi
, and\layout
. Such a definition at the toplevel changes the default book-wide settings. If more than one such definition of the same type is entered at the top level any definitions in the later expressions have precedence. -
A direct scheme expression, such as
#(set-default-paper-size "a7" 'landscape)
or#(ly:set-option 'point-and-click #f)
. -
A
\header
block. This sets the global header block. This is the block containing the definitions for book-wide settings, like composer, title, etc. -
A
\score
block. This score will be collected with other toplevel scores, and combined as a single\book
. This behavior can be changed by setting the variabletoplevel-score-handler
at toplevel. The default handler is defined in the init file ‘../scm/lily.scm’. -
A
\book
block logically combines multiple movements (i.e., multiple\score
blocks) in one document. If there are a number of\score
s, one output file will be created for each\book
block, in which all corresponding movements are concatenated. The only reason to explicitly specify\book
blocks in a.ly
file is if you wish to create multiple output files from a single input file. One exception is within lilypond-book documents, where you explicitly have to add a\book
block if you want more than a single\score
or\markup
in the same example. This behavior can be changed by setting the variabletoplevel-book-handler
at toplevel. The default handler is defined in the init file ‘../scm/lily.scm’. -
A
\bookpart
block. A book may be divided into several parts, using\bookpart
blocks, in order to ease the page breaking, or to use different\paper
settings in different parts. -
A compound music expression, such as
{ c'4 d' e'2 }
This will add the piece in a
\score
and format it in a single book together with all other toplevel\score
s and music expressions. In other words, a file containing only the above music expression will be translated into\book { \score { \new Staff { \new Voice { { c'4 d' e'2 } } } } \layout { } \header { } }
This behavior can be changed by setting the variable
toplevel-music-handler
at toplevel. The default handler is defined in the init file ‘../scm/lily.scm’. -
A markup text, a verse for example
\markup { 2. The first line verse two. }
Markup texts are rendered above, between or below the scores or music expressions, wherever they appear.
-
A variable, such as
foo = { c4 d e d }
This can be used later on in the file by entering
\foo
. The name of a variable should have alphabetic characters only; no numbers, underscores or dashes.
The following example shows three things that may be entered at toplevel
\layout { % Don't justify the output ragged-right = ##t } \header { title = "Do-re-mi" } { c'4 d' e2 }
At any point in a file, any of the following lexical instructions can be entered:
-
\version
-
\include
-
\sourcefilename
-
\sourcefileline
-
A single-line comment, introduced by a leading
%
sign. -
A multi-line comment delimited by
%{ .. %}
.
See also
Learning Manual: How LilyPond input files work.
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