GNU LilyPond program usage: 3.2.1 Invoking lilypond

### 3.2.1 Invoking `lilypond`

The `lilypond` executable may be called as follows from the command line.

>     lilypond [option]… file…

When invoked with a filename that has no extension, the ‘`.ly`’ extension is tried first. To read input from stdin, use a dash (`-`) for file.

When ‘`filename.ly`’ is processed it will produce ‘`filename.ps`’ and ‘`filename.pdf`’ as output. Several files can be specified; they will each be processed independently. 1

If ‘`filename.ly`’ contains more than one `\score` block, then the rest of the scores will be output in numbered files, starting with ‘`filename-1.pdf`’. In addition, the value of `output-suffix` will be inserted between the basename and the number. An input file containing

>     #(define output-suffix "violin")
>     \score { … }
>     #(define output-suffix "cello")
>     \score { … }

will output base‘`-violin.pdf`’ and base‘`-cello-1.pdf`’.

### Footnotes

[1] The status of GUILE is not reset after processing a `.ly` file, so be careful not to change any system defaults from within Scheme.

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#### Application Usage