13.2 Notes for the MacOS X app

The scripts (such as lilypond-book, convert-ly, abc2ly, and even lilypond itself) are also included inside MacOS X .app. They can be run from the command line by invoking them directly, e.g.

path/to/LilyPond.app/Contents/Resources/bin/lilypond

The same is true of the other scripts in that directory, including lilypond-book, convert-ly, abc2ly, etc.

Alternatively, you may create scripts which add the path automatically. Create a directory to store these scripts,

mkdir -p ~/bin
cd ~/bin

Create a file called lilypond which contains

exec path/to/LilyPond.app/Contents/Resources/bin/lilypond "$@"

Create similar files lilypond-book, convert-ly, and any other helper programs you use (abc2ly, midi2ly, etc). Simply replace the bin/lilypond with bin/convert-ly (or other program name) in the above file.

Make the file executable,

chmod u+x lilypond

Now, add this directory to your path. Modify (or create) a file called .profile in your home directory such that it contains

export PATH=$PATH:~/bin

This file should end with a blank line.

Note that path/to will generally be /Applications/.