2.3 Invoking convert-ly
The convert-ly command uses the \version number
in the input file to detect older versions. In most cases it is
sufficient just to run
convert-ly -e myfile.ly
in the directory containing the input file; this upgrades
myfile.ly in-place and preserves the original file by
renaming it to myfile.ly~. The \version number in
the upgraded input file, along with any required syntax updates,
is also changed.
When run, the convert-ly command outputs the version
numbers of which conversions have been made to. If no version
numbers are listed in the output for the file, it is already up to
date and using the latest LilyPond syntax.
Note: For each new version of LilyPond, a new
convert-ly command is created. However, not every
version of LilyPond needs syntax changes for its input files from
the version before. This means that the convert-ly
command only converts input files up to the latest syntax change
it has and this, in turn, may mean that the \version
number left in the upgraded input file is sometimes lower than the
version of the convert-ly command itself.
To convert all input files in a single directory, use
convert-ly -e *.ly
as a command. To handle all input files that reside in different subdirectories, try
find . -name '*.ly' -exec convert-ly -e '{}' \;
to recursively search and convert them in the current directory and all directories below it. The converted files will be located in the same directory along with their renamed originals.
On Windows, execute
forfiles /s /M *.ly /c "cmd /c convert-ly -e @file"
instead. The forfiles command also accepts an explicit
path to the top level of your folder containing all the
sub-folders that have input files in them by using the /p
option.
forfiles /s /p C:\Documents\MyScores /M *.ly /c "cmd /c convert-ly -e @file"
If there are spaces in the path to the top-level folder, the whole path needs to be inside double quotes, for example
forfiles /s /p "C:\Documents\My Scores" /M *.ly /c "cmd /c convert-ly -e @file"