LilyPond Application Usage: 1.2 Command-line usage

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1.2 Command-line usage

This section contains extra information about using LilyPond on the command-line. This may be desirable to pass extra options to the program. In addition, there are certain extra ‘helper’ programs (such as midi2ly) which are only available on the command-line.

By ‘command-line’, we mean the command line in the operating system. Windows users might be more familiar with the terms ‘DOS shell’ or ‘command shell’. MacOS X users might be more familiar with the terms ‘terminal’ or ‘console’. Some additional setup is required for MacOS X users; please see MacOS X.

Describing how to use this part of an operating system is outside the scope of this manual; please consult other documentation on this topic if you are unfamiliar with the command-line.

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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.

Note: On Windows prior to Windows 10 1903, LilyPond cannot handle Unicode file names.

When ‘filename.ly’ is processed it produces ‘filename.pdf’ as output by default. Several files can be specified; they are each processed independently.¹

If ‘filename.ly’ contains more than one \book block, the rest of the scores is output in numbered files, starting with ‘filename-1.pdf’. In addition, the value of output-suffix is inserted between the basename and the number. For example, if ‘filename.ly’ contains

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

LilyPond outputs ‘filename-violin.pdf’ and ‘filename-cello-1.pdf’.

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Using LilyPond with standard shell features

Since LilyPond is a command line application, features of the ‘shell’ used for calling LilyPond can also be put to good use.

For example,

lilypond *.ly

processes all LilyPond files in the current directory.

Redirecting the console output (e.g., to a file) may also be useful:

lilypond file.ly 1> stdout.txt
lilypond file.ly 2> stderr.txt
lilypond file.ly &> all.txt

The above commands divert ‘normal’ output, ‘errors’ only, or ‘everything’, respectively, to text files. Consult the documentation for your particular shell, Command (Windows), Terminal or Console applications (MacOS X) to check whether output redirection is supported or if the syntax is different.

The following example searches and processes all input files in the current directory and all directories below it recursively. The output files are located in the same directory that the command was run in, rather than in the same directories as the original input files.

find . -name '*.ly' -exec lilypond '{}' \;

This should also work for MacOS X users.

A Windows user would run

forfiles /s /M *.ly /c "cmd /c lilypond @file"

entering these commands in a command prompt usually found under Start > Accessories > Command Prompt, or by typing in the search window ‘command prompt’.

Alternatively, an explicit path to the top-level of your folder containing all the sub-folders that have input files in them can be stated using the /p option;

forfiles /s /p C:\Documents\MyScores /M *.ly /c "cmd /c lilypond @file"

If there are spaces in the path to the top-level folder, then the whole path needs to be inside double quotes;

forfiles /s /p "C:\Documents\My Scores" /M *.ly /c "cmd /c lilypond @file"

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Basic command line options for LilyPond

The following options are supported.

-d, --define-default=var[=val]

See Advanced command line options for LilyPond.

-e, --evaluate=expr

Evaluate the Scheme expr before parsing any ‘.ly’ files. Multiple ‘-e’ options may be given, they are evaluated sequentially.

The expression is evaluated in the guile-user module, so if you want to use a definition like (define-public a 42) as expr, use

lilypond -e '(define-public a 42)'

on the command-line, and include

#(use-modules (guile-user))

at the top of the ‘.ly’ file.

Note: Windows users must use double quotes instead of single quotes.

-E, --eps

Generate EPS files.

This option is equivalent to specifying -dseparate-page-formats=ps.

-f, --format=format

The format of the (main) output file or files. Possible values for format are ps, pdf, png or svg.

Example: lilypond -fpng foo.ly

SVG internally uses a specific backend, and therefore cannot be obtained in the same run as other formats; using -fsvg or --svg is actually equivalent to using the -dbackend=svg option. See Advanced command line options for LilyPond.

-h, --help

Show a summary of usage.

-H, --header=field

Dump a header field to file ‘BASENAME.field’.

As an example, let’s assume that you have an input file ‘foo.ly’ containing

\header { title = "bar" }
\score { c1 }

The command

lilypond -H title foo.ly

then creates a plain text file ‘foo.title’ containing the string bar.

-i, --init=file

Set init file to file (default: ‘init.ly’).

-I, --include=directory

Append directory to the search path for input files with relative paths. By default, only the current working directory gets searched.

Multiple ‘-I’ options may be given. The search starts in the current working directory, and if the file to be included is not found the search continues in the directory given by the first ‘-I’ option, then the directory in the second ‘-I’ option, and so on.

Note: Using the tilde character (~) with the ‘-I’ switch may produce unexpected results in some shells.

Windows users need to include a trailing slash for the directory’s path.

-j, --jail=user,group,jail,dir

[This option is only available if your operating system supports the chroot functionality. In particular, Windows doesn’t support it.]

Run lilypond in a chroot jail.

The ‘--jail’ option can be used for security when LilyPond formatting is being provided via a web server, or whenever LilyPond executes commands sent by external sources (see Advanced command line options for LilyPond). Because LilyPond provides the ability to run Guile programs, it is essential in such scenarios to run it in a sandboxed way so that the file being compiled does not wreak havoc on the system, for example with

% too dangerous to write correctly
#(s ystem "rm -rf /")
% malicious but not destructive
{ c4^$(ly:gulp-file "/etc/passwd") }

‘--jail’ is one way to achieve sandboxing. Another one is running LilyPond in a Docker container.

The ‘--jail’ option works by changing the root of lilypond to jail just before starting the actual compilation process. The user and group are then changed to match those provided, and the current directory is changed to dir. This setup guarantees that it is not possible (at least in theory) to escape from the jail. Note that for ‘--jail’ to work, lilypond must be run as root, which is usually accomplished in a safe way using sudo.

Setting up a jail can be a relatively complex matter, as we must be sure that LilyPond is able to find whatever it needs to compile the source inside the jail itself. A typical chroot jail comprises the following steps:

Setting up a separate filesystem

A separate filesystem should be created for LilyPond, so that it can be mounted with safe options such as noexec, nodev, and nosuid. In this way, it is impossible to run executables or to write directly to a device from LilyPond. If you do not want to create a separate partition, just create a file of reasonable size and use it to mount a loop device. A separate filesystem also guarantees that LilyPond cannot write more space than it is allowed.

Setting up a separate user

A separate user and group (say, lily/lily) with low privileges should be used to run LilyPond inside the jail. There should be a single directory writable by this user, which should be passed in dir.

Preparing the jail

LilyPond needs to read a number of files while running. All these files are to be copied into the jail, under the same path they appear in the real root filesystem. The entire content of the LilyPond installation (e.g., ‘/usr/share/lilypond’) should be copied.

If problems arise, the simplest way to trace them down is to run LilyPond using strace, which allows you to determine which files are missing.

Running LilyPond

In a jail mounted with noexec it is impossible to execute any external program. Therefore LilyPond must be run with a backend that does not require any such program. As we have already mentioned, it must be run with superuser privileges (which, of course, it loses immediately), possibly using sudo. It is also good practice to limit the number of seconds of CPU time LilyPond can use (e.g., using ulimit -t), and, if your operating system supports it, the amount of memory that can be allocated. Also see LilyPond in chroot jail.

-l, --loglevel=level

Set the verbosity of the console output to level. Possible values are:

NONE: No output at all, not even error messages.
ERROR: Only error messages, no warnings or progress messages.
WARN: Warnings and error messages, no progress.
BASIC_PROGRESS: Basic progress messages (success), warnings and errors.
PROGRESS: All progress messages, warnings and errors.
INFO: Progress messages, warnings, errors and further execution information. This is the default.
DEBUG: All possible messages, including verbose debug output.

-o, --output=file

-o, --output=folder

Set the default output file to file or, if a folder with that name exists, direct the output to folder, taking the file name from the input file. The appropriate suffix is added (e.g., ‘.pdf’ for PDF) in both cases.

-O, --pspdfopt=key

Set the PS/PDF output optimization to key. Possible values are:

size

Generate a very small PS/EPS/PDF document. This is the default.

Using this value is equivalent to setting LilyPond’s Scheme command line options -dmusic-font-encodings='#f' and -dgs-never-embed-fonts='#f'.

TeX

Produce files that are optimized for inclusion in pdfTeX, LuaTeX, or XeTeX documents.

Using this value is equivalent to setting LilyPond’s Scheme command line options -dmusic-font-encodings='#t' and -dgs-never-embed-fonts='#f'.

TeX-GS

If you want to include more than one PDF generated by LilyPond in a TeX document, use this option and postprocess the PDF generated by TeX with Ghostscript.

Using this value is equivalent to setting LilyPond’s Scheme command line options -dmusic-font-encodings='#t' and -dgs-never-embed-fonts='#t'.

--ps

Generate PostScript. This option is equivalent to -fps.

--png

Generate pictures of each page, in PNG format. This option is equivalent to -fpng.

The resolution of the image may be set to N DPI with

-dresolution=N

--pdf

Generate PDF. This is the default, being equivalent to -fpdf.

-s, --silent

Show no progress, only error messages. This is equivalent to -lERROR.

--svg

Generate SVG files for each page. This option is equivalent to -fsvg.

-v, --version

Show version information.

-V, --verbose

Be verbose: show full paths of all files read, give timing information, etc. It is equivalent to -lDEBUG.

-w, --warranty

Show the warranty with which GNU LilyPond comes. (It comes with NO WARRANTY!)

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Advanced command line options for LilyPond

Option ‘-d’ is the command-line interface to LilyPond’s Scheme function ly:set-option. This means that all options listed here can also be set within ‘.ly’ files.

-d, --define-default=option-name[=value]

-d, --define-default=no-option-name

Set the equivalent internal Scheme symbol option-name to value. For example, the command-line option

-dbackend=svg

is equivalent to

#(ly:set-option 'backend 'svg)

in a LilyPond input file.

If value is not supplied, use #t as the value (which might produce strange results if the expected value type is not boolean). The prefix no- may be added to option-name to switch ‘off’ an option, providing #f as the value. For example,

-dpoint-and-click='#f'

is the same as

-dno-point-and-click

[Note that the ‘#’ character introduces a comment in many shells. For this reason it is recommended to always quote expressions that contain it.]

The following table lists all supported option names together with its values. Within Scheme code, option values can be read using function ly:get-option.

anti-alias-factor num

Render at a higher resolution (using factor num, which must be a positive integer ≤8) and scale down the result to prevent ‘jaggies’ in PNG images. Default: 1.

aux-files bool

If bool is #t, create ‘.tex’, ‘.texi’, and ‘.count’ files. This option is mostly for use by lilypond-book. Default: #f.

backend symbol

Use symbol as the backend for LilyPond output. Possible values are:

ps

This is the default setting. PostScript files include TTF, Type1, and OTF fonts. No ‘subsetting’ of these fonts is done. Be aware that using ‘oriental’ character sets like Japanese can lead to very large file sizes.

For PDF output, the ps backend is used, too; the resulting PS data is post-processed by Ghostscript’s ps2pdf script, which also does font subsetting by default.

svg

Scalable Vector Graphics. A single SVG file is created for every page of output. Music glyphs are encoded as vector graphics, but text fonts are not embedded in the SVG files. Any SVG viewer will therefore need the relevant text fonts to be available to it for proper rendering of both text and lyrics. It is recommended to not use font ‘lists’ or ‘aliases’ in case an SVG viewer is unable to handle them. When using Web Open Font Format (WOFF) files the additional -dsvg-woff switch is required.

clip-systems bool

If bool is #t, extract music fragments out of a score. This requires that the clip-regions function has been defined within the \layout block. See music Extracting fragments of music. No fragments are extracted though if used with the ‘-dno-print-pages’ option. Default: #f.

compile-scheme-code bool

Use the Guile compiler to run Scheme code, instead of the evaluator. For more information, see Debugging Scheme code.

crop bool

If bool is #t, a second PDF file gets created (with extension ‘.cropped.pdf’), together with a rendered image of it (with extension ‘.cropped.png’). This output file fits all the music and headers, without margins, into a single, possibly tall page. If option ‘--svg’ is set, an additional SVG file (with extension ‘.cropped.svg’) is produced instead. If option ‘--eps’ or ‘--ps’ is set, a cropped EPS file (with extension ‘.cropped.eps’) is produced instead of a cropped PDF. Default: #f.

Note that currently this option is not well suited for multi-system output since vertical space between systems gets removed.

datadir

Prefix for data files. This is a read-only option; setting it has no effect.

debug-eval bool

If bool is #t, use the debugging Scheme evaluator, which prints backtraces with line numbers on errors. Default: #f, or #t when using --verbose.

debug-skylines bool

If bool is #t, debug skylines. Default: #f.

delete-intermediate-files bool

If bool is #t, delete the unusable, intermediate ‘.ps’ files created during compilation. Default: #t.

embed-source-code bool

If bool is #t, embed the LilyPond source files inside the generated PDF document. Default: #f.

eps-box-padding num

Pad left edge of the output EPS bounding box by num millimeters. Default: #f (meaning no bounding box padding).

font-export-dir string

Set directory for exporting fonts as PostScript files to string. This is useful when you want to create a PDF without embedded fonts first and later embed the fonts with Ghostscript as shown below.

$ lilypond -dfont-export-dir=fontdir -dgs-never-embed-fonts foo.ly
$ gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
     -sOutputFile=foo.embedded.pdf foo.pdf fontdir/*.font.ps

Note: Unlike font-ps-resdir, this method cannot embed CID fonts with Ghostscript 9.26 and later.

Note: Same as font-ps-resdir, this option skips TrueType fonts because embedding TrueType fonts later causes garbled characters. To avoid garbling characters, use gs-never-embed-fonts, as this embeds TrueType fonts despite its name.

Default: #f (meaning not to export).

font-ps-resdir string

Set directory (as string) to build a subset of the PostScript resource directory to be used for embedding fonts later. This is useful when you want to create a PDF without embedded fonts first and later embed the fonts with Ghostscript as shown below.

$ lilypond -dfont-ps-resdir=resdir -dgs-never-embed-fonts foo.ly
$ gs -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
     -I resdir -I resdir/Font \
     -sOutputFile=foo.embedded.pdf foo.pdf

Note: It is better not to specify the directory that contains the name ‘Resource’ because it has a special meaning when specified with the -I option for Ghostscript.

Note: Unlike font-export-dir, this method can embed CID fonts with Ghostscript 9.26 and later.

Note: Same as font-export-dir, this option skips TrueType fonts because embedding TrueType fonts later causes garbled characters. To avoid garbling characters, use gs-never-embed-fonts, as this embeds TrueType fonts despite its name.

Default: #f (meaning not to build).

gs-load-fonts bool

If bool is #t, load fonts via Ghostscript. This option makes LilyPond’s output files contain only references to all fonts, which must be resolved to real fonts in a post-processing step by Ghostscript. Default: #f.

gs-load-lily-fonts bool

If bool is #t, load LilyPond fonts via Ghostscript. This option makes LilyPond’s output files contain only references to its music fonts, which must be resolved to real fonts in a post-processing step by Ghostscript. All other fonts are still output as usual. Default: #f.

gs-never-embed-fonts bool

If bool is #t, make Ghostscript embed only TrueType fonts and no other font format. Default: #f.

help bool

If bool is #t, show this help. Default: #f.

include-book-title-preview bool

If bool is #t, include book titles in preview images. Default: #t.

include-eps-fonts bool

If bool is #t, include fonts in separate-system EPS files. Default: #t.

include-settings string

Include file string for global settings, which is included before the score is processed. Default: #f (meaning no global settings file).

job-count num

Process in parallel, using num jobs. Default: #f (meaning no parallel processing).

log-file string

Redirect output to the log file ‘string.log’. Default: #f (meaning no log file).

max-markup-depth num

Set maximum depth for the markup tree to value num. If a markup has more levels, assume it will not terminate on its own, print a warning, and return a null markup instead. Default: 1024.

midi-extension string

Set the default file extension for MIDI output files to ‘.string’. Default: "midi".

music-strings-to-paths bool

If bool is #t, convert text strings to paths when glyphs belong to a music font. Default: #f.

paper-size extra-quoted-string

Set default paper size to extra-quoted-string. Note that the string must be enclosed in escaped double quotes. Default: "\"a4\"".

pixmap-format symbol

Set Ghostscript’s output format for pixel images to symbol. Default: png16m.

png-width width

png-height height

For PNG output, set the width and height (in pixels) of the created image file. If one of the options is missing, the other dimension is computed according to the EPS bounding box, retaining the aspect ratio.

In addition to ‘--png’, either ‘--eps’, ‘-dcrop’, or ‘-dpreview’ should be used to get proper image scaling without clipping.

Option ‘-dresolution’ is ignored.

Note that there is a bug in ghostscript versions up to 9.52 for these two options: It produces empty PNG images if the height is larger than the width.

point-and-click bool

If bool is #t, add ‘point & click’ links to PDF and SVG output. See Point and click. Default: #t.

preview bool

If bool is #t, create preview images in addition to normal output. Default: #f.

This option is supported by all backends (pdf, png, ps, eps, and svg) except scm. For input file name file and backend format, it generates an output file having the name ‘file.preview.format’, containing the titles and the first system of music. If \book or \bookpart blocks are used, the titles of \book, \bookpart or \score will appear in the output, including the first system of every \score block if the \paper variable print-all-headers is set to #t.

To suppress the usual output, use the ‘-dprint-pages’ or ‘-dno-print-pages’ options according to your requirements.

print-pages bool

If bool is #t, generate full pages. Default: #t.

Option ‘-dno-print-pages’ is useful in combination with ‘-dpreview’ or ‘-dcrop’.

protected-scheme-parsing bool

If bool is #t, continue when errors in inline Scheme code are caught in the parser. If set to #f, halt on errors and print a stack trace. Default: #t.

relative-includes bool

When processing an \include command, look for the included file relative to the current file if bool is #t. If set to #f, look for the file relative to the root file. Default: #t.

resolution num

Set resolution for generating PNG pixmaps to num dpi. Default: 101.

separate-log-files bool

For input files ‘file1.ly’, ‘file2.ly’, …, output log data to files ‘file1.log’, ‘file2.log’, …, if bool is #t. Default: #f.

separate-page-formats symbol

Comma-separated list of formats (svg, pdf, png, or eps) to use for the separate page images in lilypond-book.

show-available-fonts bool

If bool is #t, list available font names as delivered by the fontconfig library. Appended to this list LilyPond displays the configuration settings of fontconfig itself. Default: #f.

strip-output-dir bool

If bool is #t, don’t use the directory part from input file paths while constructing output file names. Default: #t.

strokeadjust bool

If bool is #t, force PostScript stroke adjustment. This option is mostly relevant when a PDF is generated from PostScript output (stroke adjustment is usually enabled automatically for low-resolution bitmap devices). Without this option, PDF previewers tend to produce widely inconsistent stem widths at resolutions typical for screen display. However, the option does not noticeably affect print quality and causes large file size increases in PDF files. Default: #f.

svg-woff bool

This option is required when using Web Open Font Format (WOFF) font files with the svg backend. If bool is #t, a single SVG file is created for every page of output. Apart from LilyPond’s own music glyphs, no other font information will be included. Any SVG viewer will therefore require the fonts be available to it for the proper rendering of both text and lyrics. It is also recommended not to use any font ‘aliases’ or ‘lists’ in case the SVG viewer cannot handle them. Default: #f.

tall-page-formats symbol

Comma-separated list of formats (svg, pdf, png, or eps) to use for the ‘tall page’ image in lilypond-book.

use-paper-size-for-page bool

If bool is #t (the default), each page is set to the paper size, possibly cropping parts that extend beyond the paper. Setting it #f will resize the page to contain the content as necessary.

verbose

Verbosity level. This is a read-only option; setting it has no effect.

warning-as-error bool

If bool is #t, change all warning and ‘programming error’ messages into errors. Default: #f.

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Environment variables

lilypond recognizes the following environment variables:

LILYPOND_DATADIR: This specifies a directory where locale messages and data files are looked up by default, overriding locations defined either at compile-time or computed dynamically at run-time (see Relocation). The directory should contain subdirectories called ‘ly’, ‘ps’, ‘tex’, etc.
LILYPOND_LOCALEDIR: Specify the directory where locale-specific files are located. This overrides the value derived from LILYPOND_DATADIR.
LILYPOND_RELOCDIR: Specify the directory where relocation files are located. This overrides the value derived from the location of the lilypond binary.
LANG: The language for LilyPond data sent to stdout and stderr, for example progress reports, warning messages, or debug output. Example: LANG=de.
LILYPOND_LOGLEVEL: The default loglevel. If LilyPond is called without an explicit loglevel (i.e., no ‘--loglevel’ command line option), this value is used.
LILYPOND_GC_YIELD: A variable, as a percentage, that tunes memory management behavior. A higher values means the program uses more memory, a smaller value means more CPU time is used. The default value is 70.
TMPDIR: This specifies the temporary directory in GNU/Linux and Mac. Default is ‘/tmp’. It is the directory where intermediate files (such as PostScript files) are saved during compilation. Overriding this variable might be useful, for example, if the user running lilypond does not have write access to the default temporary directory. Example: TMPDIR=~/foo.

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Relocation

Most programs in the Unix world use default directories for its data that are determined at configure time before compilation. LilyPond is no exception; for example, a typical installation puts the ‘lilypond’ binary into ‘/usr/bin’ and all files specific to LilyPond into subdirectories of ‘/usr/share/lilypond/2.21.0/’ (assuming that the current version is 2.21.0).

While this approach works fine for manual compilation and platforms that come with standardized package managers, it can cause issues where such managers are not common or not used by default. Typical examples of such platforms are Windows and MacOS, where users expect that application bundles can be installed anywhere.

The common solution to this problem is relocation support: Instead of using hard-coded paths to data files, locations of the necessary support files are computed at run time relative to the executed binary.

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Relocation files

There’s actually a second mechanism for run-time configuration: LilyPond heavily relies on external programs and libraries, in particular the ‘FontConfig’ and ‘GUILE’ libraries to find system fonts and handle Scheme files, respectively, and the gs program to convert PS data to PDF files. All of them must be configured also to locate its relevant data files. To do that, the lilypond program parses all files in a directory called ‘relocate’ (if it exists; see below where this directory is searched for) to manipulate environment variables, which in turn control those external libraries and programs. The format of such relocation files is simple; each line has the syntax

command key=value

and empty lines get ignored.

The command directive is one of the following.

set: Uncondionally set environment variable key to value. This overrides a previously set value.
set?: Set environment variable key to value only if key isn’t defined yet. In other words, it doesn’t override a previously set value.
setdir: If value is a directory, unconditionally set environent variable key to value. Otherwise, emit a warning.
setfile: If value is a file, unconditionally set environent variable key to value. Otherwise, emit a warning.
prependdir: Prepend directory value to the list of directories in environment variable key. If key doesn’t exist it gets created.

Environment variables (marked with a leading dollar sign) are allowed in value and get expanded before the directive is executed.

Here are two examples of relocation file entries.

set? FONTCONFIG_FILE=$INSTALLER_PREFIX/etc/fonts/fonts.conf
prependdir GUILE_LOAD_PATH=$INSTALLER_PREFIX/share/guile/1.8

Multiple lines setting the same environment variable should be avoided in relocation files since the parsing order of files in the ‘relocate’ directory is arbitrary.

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Relocation algorithm

LilyPond uses the following algorithm to find its data files.

Compute the directory where the currently executed lilypond binary is located. Let’s call this bindir. Set (internal) environment variable INSTALLER_PREFIX to ‘bindir/..’ (i.e., the parent directory of bindir).
Check environment variable LILYPOND_DATADIR. If it is set, use its value for LilyPond’s data directory, datadir. Otherwise use either ‘$INSTALLER_PREFIX/share/lilypond/version’ (with version being the current LilyPond version) or ‘$INSTALLER_PREFIX/share/lilypond/current’.
Check environment variable LILYPOND_LOCALEDIR. If it is set, use its value for LilyPond’s locale data directory, localedir. Otherwise use ‘$INSTALLER_PREFIX/share/locale’.
Check environment variable LILYPOND_RELOCDIR. If it is set, use its value for the directory of LilyPond’s relocation files, relocdir. Otherwise use ‘$INSTALLER_PREFIX/etc/relocate’.
If datadir doesn’t exist, use a compile-time value instead. Ditto for localedir (but not for relocdir, since it doesn’t make sense to have that).
If relocdir exists, process all files in this directory as described in Relocation files.

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LilyPond in chroot jail

Setting up the server to run LilyPond in a chroot jail is a complicated task. The steps are listed below. Examples in the steps are from Ubuntu GNU/Linux, and may require the use of sudo as appropriate.

Install the necessary packages: LilyPond, Ghostscript, and ImageMagick.
Create a new user by the name of lily:
```
adduser lily
```
This will create a new group for the lily user as well, and a home folder, /home/lily
In the home folder of the lily user create a file to use as a separate filesystem:
```
dd if=/dev/zero of=/home/lily/loopfile bs=1k count= 200000
```
This example creates a 200MB file for use as the jail filesystem.

Create a loop device, make a file system and mount it, then create a folder that can be written by the lily user:

mkdir /mnt/lilyloop
losetup /dev/loop0 /home/lily/loopfile
mkfs -t ext3 /dev/loop0 200000
mount -t ext3 /dev/loop0 /mnt/lilyloop
mkdir /mnt/lilyloop/lilyhome
chown lily /mnt/lilyloop/lilyhome

In the configuration of the servers, the JAIL will be /mnt/lilyloop and the DIR will be /lilyhome.

Create a big directory tree in the jail by copying the necessary files, as shown in the sample script below.

You can use sed to create the necessary copy commands for a given executable:

for i in "/usr/local/lilypond/usr/bin/lilypond" "/bin/sh" "/usr/bin/;  \
  do ldd $i | sed 's/.*=> \/\(.*\/\)\([^(]*\).*/mkdir -p \1 \&\&  \
    cp -L \/\1\2 \1\2/' | sed 's/\t\/\(.*\/\)\(.*\) (.*)$/mkdir -p  \
      \1 \&\& cp -L \/\1\2 \1\2/' | sed '/.*=>.*/d'; done

Example script for 32-bit Ubuntu 8.04

#!/bin/sh
## defaults set here

username=lily
home=/home
loopdevice=/dev/loop0
jaildir=/mnt/lilyloop
# the prefix (without the leading slash!)
lilyprefix=usr/local
# the directory where lilypond is installed on the system
lilydir=/$lilyprefix/lilypond/

userhome=$home/$username
loopfile=$userhome/loopfile
adduser $username
dd if=/dev/zero of=$loopfile bs=1k count=200000
mkdir $jaildir
losetup $loopdevice $loopfile
mkfs -t ext3 $loopdevice 200000
mount -t ext3 $loopdevice $jaildir
mkdir $jaildir/lilyhome
chown $username $jaildir/lilyhome
cd $jaildir

mkdir -p bin usr/bin usr/share usr/lib usr/share/fonts $lilyprefix tmp
chmod a+w tmp

cp -r -L $lilydir $lilyprefix
cp -L /bin/sh /bin/rm bin
cp -L /usr/bin/convert /usr/bin/gs usr/bin
cp -L /usr/share/fonts/truetype usr/share/fonts

# Now the library copying magic
for i in "$lilydir/usr/bin/lilypond" "$lilydir/usr/bin/guile" "/bin/sh"  \
  "/bin/rm" "/usr/bin/gs" "/usr/bin/convert"; do ldd $i | sed 's/.*=>  \
    \/\(.*\/\)\([^(]*\).*/mkdir -p \1 \&\& cp -L \/\1\2 \1\2/' | sed  \
      's/\t\/\(.*\/\)\(.*\) (.*)$/mkdir -p \1 \&\& cp -L \/\1\2 \1\2/'  \
        | sed '/.*=>.*/d'; done | sh -s

# The shared files for Ghostscript...
      cp -L -r /usr/share/ghostscript usr/share
# The shared files for ImageMagick
      cp -L -r /usr/lib/ImageMagick* usr/lib

### Now, assuming that you have test.ly in /mnt/lilyloop/lilyhome,
### you should be able to run:
### Note that /$lilyprefix/bin/lilypond is a script, which sets the
### LD_LIBRARY_PATH - this is crucial
      /$lilyprefix/bin/lilypond -jlily,lily,/mnt/lilyloop,/lilyhome test.ly

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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LilyPond — Usage v2.23.82 (development-branch).