Running LilyPond on Mac OS X

LilyPond under Mac OS X Leopard (OS 10.5) and Snow Leopard (OS 10.6)

1. Download the latest stable release (2.14.2-1) of LilyPond and put LilyPond.app in your Applications folder.
   (You could use an earlier release of LilyPond if you need to because you have older .ly files, or download the latest development branch, 2.15.38-1.)
   (G3, G4 or G5 Mac owners using Leopard should use the ppc version of 2.14.2-1 or an earlier release.)
2. Run the LilyPond application, which will open an editor window.
3. Edit the text file (see the Learning Manual) and save it.
4. Produce sheet music in the form of a pdf file by pressing ⌘-R (command-R). This is called ‘compiling’. The pdf will open automatically. (This step may take a couple of minutes the first time you use Lilypond.)

LilyPond under Mac OS X Lion (OS 10.7)

1. Download the latest development branch, 2.15.38-1.
2. Run the LilyPond application, which will open an editor window.
3. Edit the text file (see the Learning Manual) and save it.
4. Produce sheet music in the form of a pdf file by pressing ⌘-R (command-R). This is called ‘compiling’. The pdf will open automatically. (This step may take a couple of minutes the first time you use Lilypond.)

The remainder of this page was written when LilyPond did not run as a native application under Leopard or Snow Leopard. Some people, however, still prefer to use their own text editor of choice to edit the .ly files. The text below is kept as a reference for how to do this, but it is no longer kept up to date.

Pick the method you feel comfortable with:

• Download the latest stable release (2.14.2-1) of LilyPond and put LilyPond.app in your Applications folder.
  (You could use an earlier release of LilyPond if you need to because you have older .ly files, or download the latest development branch, 2.15.38-1.)
  (G3, G4 or G5 Mac owners using Leopard should use the ppc version of 2.14.2-1 or an earlier release.)
• Download Smultron.
  Smultron is a free text editor for Mac, which has text colouring for LilyPond.

step 2: Create a command in Smultron

• Open Smultron.
• Open the Command window by pressing ⌘-B (command-B) and create a new command with the following content:
  #!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/touch %%d -m %%p
/Applications/LilyPond.app/Contents/Resources/bin/lilypond -dno-point-and-click -ddelete-intermediate-files -o %%d %%p
/usr/bin/find %%d -newer %%p -name '*.pdf' -exec open {} \;
/usr/bin/find %%d -newer %%p -name '*.midi' -exec open {} \;
This command will compile the LilyPond file and open both the pdf and the midi, if they are newer than your LilyPond file.
  The -dno-point-and-click can be left out to enable the point-and-click feature, but this yields much larger pdf files.
  
• Optionally, make a keyboard shortcut for the command (⌘-L, for example).

step 3: Create your music

• Use Smultron to make, edit and save a LilyPond code file (LilyPond code files are usually given the extension .ly).
• Use the command made in step b to create the pdf (and midi*) in Smultron.
  (The first time, this may take some time because LilyPond needs to do some installing.)
  (*See the Documentation on how to produce a midi file.)

Additional Smultron tips

• To convert older versions of .ly files, create the command
  /Applications/LilyPond.app/Contents/Resources/bin/convert-ly -e %%d/ %%p
• To produce png files of your score, create the command
  #!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/touch %%d -m %%p
/Applications/LilyPond.app/Contents/Resources/bin/lilypond -dno-point-and-click -dbackend=eps -dno-gs-load-fonts -dinclude-eps-fonts -dresolution=400 --png -o %%d %%p
/usr/bin/find %%d -newer %%p -name '*.count' -exec rm {} \;
/usr/bin/find %%d -newer %%p -name '*.eps' -exec rm {} \;
/usr/bin/find %%d -newer %%p -name '*.tex' -exec rm {} \;
/usr/bin/find %%d -newer %%p -name '*.texi' -exec rm {} \;

• Download the latest stable release (2.14.2-1) of LilyPond and put LilyPond.app in your Applications folder.
  (You could use an earlier release of LilyPond if you need to because you have older .ly files, or download the latest development branch, 2.15.38-1.)
  (G3, G4 or G5 Mac owners using Leopard should use the ppc version of 2.14.2-1 or an earlier release.)
• Download TeXShop.
  TeXShop is a free TeX previewer and editor for Mac OS X.

step 2: Create an engine file for TeXShop

• Create a LilyPond.engine file containing two lines, and put it in the ~Library/TeXShop/Engines directory:
  If your standard shell is bash:
  #!/bin/bash
export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/LilyPond.app/Contents/Resources/bin
lilypond --pdf "$1"
  If your standard shell is tcsh:
  #!/bin/tcsh
set path = ($path /Applications/LilyPond.app/Contents/Resources/bin)
lilypond --pdf "$1"
• Using Terminal, make the engine file executable by the command
  chmod +x

step 3: Create your music

• Use TeXShop to make, edit and save a .ly file.
• Select LilyPond from the Engines pull-down menu in TeXShop to create the pdf (and midi*).
  (The first time, this may take some time because LilyPond needs to do some installing.)
  (*See the Documentation on how to produce a midi file.)

• Download the latest stable release (2.14.2-1) of LilyPond and put LilyPond.app in your Applications folder.
  (You could use an earlier release of LilyPond if you need to because you have older .ly files, or download the latest development branch, 2.15.38-1.)
  (G3, G4 or G5 Mac owners using Leopard should use the ppc version of 2.14.2-1 or an earlier release.)
• Download this shell script and start it using Terminal.

step 2: Create your music

• Use a text editor to make, edit and save a .ly file.
• Drop the .ly file into the Terminal window and follow the instructions.
  (The first time, compilation may take some time because LilyPond needs to do some installing.)

D1. Using MacPorts

1. Install Xcode, either from the Leopard DVD or by downloading it from Apple Developer Connection (requires getting a free Developer account).
2. Install MacPorts from www.macports.org.
3. Open up the Terminal and add /opt/local to your PATH. The easiest way to do this is to run
   echo export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:\$PATH$'\n'export MANPATH=/opt/local/man:\$MANPATH | sudo tee -a /etc/profile
4. Close and reopen the Terminal.
5. Run the command
   sudo port install lilypond
6. Let the computer chug along for a while — it will probably take about an hour to finish.

D2. All by yourself (for the experienced)