Development
Development for LilyPond 2.25.18
Note: These are unstable development versions. If you have the slightest doubt about how to use or install LilyPond, we urge you to use the stable Download, and read the stable Manuals.
Release numbers
There are two sets of releases for LilyPond: stable releases, and unstable development releases. Stable versions have an even-numbered ‘minor’ version number (e.g., 2.14, 2.16, 2.18). Development versions have an odd-numbered ‘minor’ version number (e.g., 2.15, 2.17, 2.19).
Download
Instructions for git and compiling are in the Contributor’s Guide.
Documentation writers and testers will generally want to download the latest binary:
GNU/Linux x86_64: LilyPond 2.25.18
macOS x86_64: LilyPond 2.25.18
If you are unsure about how to install these binaries, please read the start of the Learning Manual.
Contributor’s Guide
LilyPond development is a fairly complicated matter. In order to help new contributors, and to keep the whole system (mostly) stable, we have written a manual for development tasks.
- Contributor’s Guide (split HTML) -
the manual is split between many HTML pages.
(small download for each page) - Contributor’s Guide (big HTML) -
read this manual as one huge HTML page.
(large single download) - contributor.pdf -
download as a PDF file.
(large single download, 1008K)
Regression tests
- Regression tests: This release’s regtests. (pdf version)
- MusicXML tests: This release’s musicXML tests. (pdf version)
- abc2ly tests: This release’s abc2ly tests. (pdf version)
Manuals
Note: These manuals are for LilyPond 2.24.4; the latest manuals can be found at https://lilypond.org
| Introduction | ||
|---|---|---|
| Learning (split HTML) | Learning (big HTML) | learning.pdf |
| Glossary (split HTML) | Glossary (big HTML) | music-glossary.pdf |
| Essay (split HTML) | Essay (big HTML) | essay.pdf |
| Regular | ||
|---|---|---|
| Notation (split HTML) | Notation (big HTML) | notation.pdf |
| Usage (split HTML) | Usage (big HTML) | usage.pdf |
| Snippets (split HTML) | Snippets (big HTML) | snippets.pdf |