brew

Install lilypond with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, winget, zypper

Music engraving system. Version 2.26.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-27.

Install command Security notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install lilypond

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%

sudo port install lilypond

MacPorts ports tree · textproc/lilypond/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Alpine Linux apkverified · 92%

sudo apk add lilypond

Alpine Linux edge package indexes · lilypond · source: dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org

Debian aptverified · 92%

sudo apt install lilypond

Debian stable package indexes · lilypond · source: deb.debian.org

Fedora dnfverified · 92%

sudo dnf install lilypond

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · lilypond · source: dl.fedoraproject.org

Nixverified · 92%

nix profile install nixpkgs#lilypond

nixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/li/lilypond/package.nix · source: api.github.com

Arch Linux pacmanverified · 92%

sudo pacman -S lilypond

Arch Linux sync databases · lilypond · source: geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com

openSUSE zypperverified · 92%

sudo zypper install lilypond

openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · lilypond · source: download.opensuse.org

Windows

Scoopverified · 92%

scoop install main/lilypond

Scoop official bucket manifest trees · bucket/lilypond.json · source: api.github.com

Windows Package Managerverified · 92%

winget install --id LilyPond.LilyPond -e

Windows Package Manager source index · LilyPond.LilyPond · source: cdn.winget.microsoft.com

overview

Package summary

Music engraving system

Project links

Commands and aliases

abc2ly
convert-ly
etf2ly
lilymidi
lilypond
lilypond-book
lilypond-invoke-editor
midi2ly
musicxml2ly

history

Project history and usage

LilyPond is a GNU music engraving system that turns textual music notation into high-quality printed scores. It is part scorewriter, part compiler culture: users write source files, run command-line tools, and receive PDF, PostScript, SVG, MIDI, and related output.

Project history

LilyPond was created by Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen to escape the mechanical look of much computer-generated sheet music. The official introduction frames the project as an attempt to let musicians and publishers focus on music while the program handles engraving details according to classical music-engraving practice.

The project's own essay ties LilyPond's design to traditional manual engravings from European publishers in the first half of the twentieth century. Instead of exposing every spacing and glyph choice as a manual WYSIWYG tweak, LilyPond encodes engraving rules and lets users override them from a text language when necessary.

LilyPond 2.0.0 was released on September 24, 2003 with a focus on syntax cleanup that made entering music easier and more efficient. The project has continued with extensive manuals, converters such as abc2ly and musicxml2ly, and an ecosystem of snippets, examples, editor modes, and publication workflows.

Adoption history

LilyPond found a durable audience among free-software musicians, publishers, educators, composers, and technically inclined engravers who preferred a reproducible source-based workflow over GUI-only score editing. Its inclusion in GNU and broad packaging across Unix distributions made it a standard installable engraver for people already comfortable with LaTeX-like document production.

How it is used

Users write .ly source files, run lilypond to engrave them, and often pair it with version control, Makefiles, LaTeX, or documentation pipelines. Auxiliary commands convert ABC, MIDI, ETF, and MusicXML inputs, update old LilyPond syntax, and integrate scores into larger documents.

Why package nerds care

LilyPond is package-nerd significant because it treats sheet music like source code. It brings compiler-style reproducibility, text diffs, batch builds, fonts, Scheme extensibility, and decades of compatibility concerns into a domain more often associated with graphical editors.

Timeline

1996: Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen began the LilyPond project after earlier work around MusiXTeX-related tooling.
2003-05: The paper "LilyPond, a system for automated music engraving" appeared in the XIV Colloquium on Musical Informatics literature record.
2003-09-24: LilyPond 2.0.0 was released with syntax cleanups for easier and more efficient music entry.
2026-04-21: The LilyPond site listed LilyPond 2.26.0 as a stable release.

Related projects

LilyPond is related to GNU, TeX/LaTeX-style publishing workflows, MusicXML and ABC conversion tools, Guile/Scheme extension work, and graphical or hybrid front ends that use LilyPond for final engraving. It is often compared with notation programs such as MuseScore, Finale, and Sibelius, but its source-first workflow is closer to document compilers.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:no-higher-risk-signals

Install behavior

No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 6 platform targets.
Installs with 12 runtime dependencies.
Build metadata lists 8 build dependencies.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure
`abc2ly`	cli	global executable
`convert-ly`	cli	global executable
`etf2ly`	cli	global executable
`lilymidi`	cli	global executable
`lilypond`	cli	global executable
`lilypond-book`	cli	global executable
`lilypond-invoke-editor`	cli	global executable
`midi2ly`	cli	global executable
`musicxml2ly`	cli	global executable

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-07-08

manager version2.26.0

manager updated2026-06-27

local dataok

upstreamnot checked

latest detectednot detected

https://lilypond.org

infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://lilypond.orgnone confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:lilypond
Version	2.26.0
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/lilypond
Homepage	https://lilypond.org
Repository	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb?p=lilypond.git
Upstream docs	https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.26/Documentation
License	GPL-3.0-or-later AND GPL-3.0-only AND OFL-1.1-RFN AND GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later AND LicenseRef-Homebrew-public-domain AND MIT AND AGPL-3.0-only AND LPPL-1.3c
Source archive	https://lilypond.org/download/sources/v2.26/lilypond-2.26.0.tar.gz
Last updated	2026-06-27T13:30:00-04:00
Pulse	updated
Dependencies	bdw-gc, cairo, fontconfig, freetype, gettext, ghostscript, glib, guile, harfbuzz, libpng, pango, python@3.14
Build dependencies	bison, fontforge, gettext, make, pkgconf, t1utils, texinfo, texlive
Bottle	available (on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-install	not defined
Service	none declared

registry facts

Source database details

Source Database	Homebrew formula API
Tap	homebrew/core
Full Name	lilypond
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Head Version	HEAD
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
URL Keys	head stable

source database matches

Other package-manager records

Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.

Debian apt95%

lilypond 2.24.4-5

program for typesetting sheet music