Including LilyPond files - GNU LilyPond
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#### 10.1.3 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 "file.ly"` is equivalent to pasting the contents of file.ly into the current file at the place where you have the \include. For example, for 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.

The initialization of LilyPond is done in a number of files that are included by default when you start the program, normally transparent to the user. Run lilypond –verbose to see a list of paths and files that Lily finds.

Files placed in directory `PATH/TO/share/lilypond/VERSION/ly/` (where VERSION is in the form “2.6.1”) are on the path and available to `\include`. Files in the current working directory are available to \include, but a file of the same name in LilyPond's installation takes precedence. Files are available to \include from directories in the search path specified as an option when invoking `lilypond --include=DIR` which adds DIR to the search path.

The `\include` statement can use full path information, but with the Unix convention `"/"` rather than the DOS/Windows `"\"`. For example, if `stuff.ly` is located one directory higher than the current working directory, use

    \include "../stuff.ly"

This page is for LilyPond-2.8.8 (stable-branch).

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