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3.3.1 Including LilyPond files
A large project may be split up into separate files. To refer to another file, use
\include "otherfile.ly"
The line \include "otherfile.ly" is equivalent to pasting the
contents of ‘otherfile.ly’ into the current file at the place
where the \include appears. For example, in a large
project you might write separate files for each instrument part
and create a “full score” file which brings together the
individual instrument files. Normally the included file will
define a number of variables which then become available
for use in the full score file. Tagged sections can be
marked in included files to assist in making them usable in
different places in a score, see Different editions from one source.
Files in the current working directory may be referenced by
specifying just the file name after the \include command.
Files in other locations may be included by giving either a full
path reference or a relative path reference (but use the UNIX
forward slash, /, rather than the DOS/Windows back slash, \, as the
directory separator.) For example, if ‘stuff.ly’ is located
one directory higher than the current working directory, use
\include "../stuff.ly"
or if the included orchestral parts files are all located in a subdirectory called ‘parts’ within the current directory, use
\include "parts/VI.ly" \include "parts/VII.ly" … etc
Files which are to be included can also contain \include
statements of their own. By default, these second-level
\include statements are not interpreted until they have
been brought into the main file, so the file names they specify
must all be relative to the directory containing the main file,
not the directory containing the included file. However,
this behavior can be changed globally by passing the option
‘-drelative-includes’ option at the command line
(or by adding #(ly:set-option 'relative-includes #t)
at the top of the main input file).
When relative-includes is set to #t, the path for each
\include command will be taken relative to the file containing
that command. This behavior is recommended and it will become the
default behavior in a future version of lilypond.
Files relative to the main directory and files relative to some other
directory may both be \included by setting
relative-includes to #t or #f at appropriate
places in the files. For example, if a general library, libA, has
been created which itself uses sub-files which are \included
by the entry file of that library, those \include statements
will need to be preceded by
#(ly:set-option #relative-includes #t) so they are interpreted
correctly when brought into the main .ly file, like this:
libA/ libA.ly A1.ly A2.ly …
then the entry file, libA.ly, will contain
#(ly:set-option 'relative-includes #t) \include "A1.ly" \include "A2.ly" … % return to default setting #(ly:set-option 'relative-includes #f)
Any ‘.ly’ file can then include the entire library simply with
\include "~/libA/libA.ly"
More complex file structures may be devised by switching at appropriate places.
Files can also be included from a directory in a search path specified as an option when invoking LilyPond from the command line. The included files are then specified using just their file name. For example, to compile ‘main.ly’ which includes files located in a subdirectory called ‘parts’ by this method, cd to the directory containing ‘main.ly’ and enter
lilypond --include=parts main.ly
and in main.ly write
\include "VI.ly" \include "VII.ly" … etc
Files which are to be included in many scores may be placed in
the LilyPond directory ‘../ly’. (The location of this
directory is installation-dependent - see
Other sources of information). These files can then
be included simply by naming them on an \include statement.
This is how the language-dependent files like ‘english.ly’ are
included.
LilyPond includes a number of files by default when you start
the program. These includes are not apparent to the user, but the
files may be identified by running lilypond --verbose from
the command line. This will display a list of paths and files that
LilyPond uses, along with much other information. Alternatively,
the more important of these files are discussed in
Other sources of information. These files may be
edited, but changes to them will be lost on installing a new
version of LilyPond.
Some simple examples of using \include are shown in
Scores and parts.
See also
Learning Manual: Other sources of information, Scores and parts.
Known issues and warnings
If an included file is given a name which is the same as one in LilyPond’s installation files, LilyPond’s file from the installation files takes precedence.
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