Frescobaldi does not create files

Question

I am using LilyPond with Frescobaldi editor. It sometimes happens that Frescobaldi stops working, that is: If I change something in the .ly file (e.g. some string) and hit the Lilypond button (or press CTRL+M), nothing happens. The preview does not update, and no files are generated/updated.

I use:

• Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon, Version 5.0.5, Linux Kernel 5.4.0-80-generic.
• GNU LilyPond 2.20.0.
• Frescobaldi Version 3.0.0.

Until now I managed to get rid of this problem by closing and reopening Frescobaldi, but it does not help any more. I even removed and reinstalled Frescobaldi, restarted my computer, removed the config file... but nothing helps. Frescobaldi just does not work anymore.

Any ideas what I can do to make it work again?

If not, I'd already be happy if someone can give a clue to what is going on here. Currently, this is just (evil) magic to me...

---

Here is a simple example LilyPond file newFile.ly:

\version "2.20.0"

title = "title"
music = { \relative { c' d e f g } }

\bookpart {
  \header {
    title = \title
  }
  \score {
    \music
    \layout { }
  }
}

If I run lilypond newFile.ly in the console, I get the following output in the console:

GNU LilyPond 2.20.0
Processing `newFile.ly'
Parsing...
Interpreting music...
Preprocessing graphical objects...
Finding the ideal number of pages...
Fitting music on 1 page...
Drawing systems...
Layout output to `/tmp/lilypond-NKnbRf'...
Converting to `newFile.pdf'...
Deleting `/tmp/lilypond-NKnbRf'...
Success: compilation successfully completed

A pdf is generated (or overwritten if already present).

If I open newFile.ly in Frescobaldi, change the string value of title to "title2", save and then press CTRL+M, I get this:

No preview window is opened, no pdf is generated, and the Lilypond log inside Frescobaldi is suspiciously short: it contains only three entries (Processing, Parsing, Success), unlike the Lilypond log in the console after a direct lilypond call.

Before Frescobaldi stopped working, I always got a long log just like when using lilypond in the console.

I wonder: If Frescobaldi merely calls lilypond under the hood, why are all the other steps (Interpreting, Preprocessing, ...) omitted? And why were they not omitted before (when Frescobaldi still worked)?

Answer 1

I found the answer for the current "broken-ness":

If there is a file init.ly inside the folder of the main file (main file = the one to be compiled), console lilypond doesn't mind but Frescobaldi can't cope with it and will behave as described in the question. Even if that init.ly file isn't even \included anywhere!

I guess this is worth a Frescobaldi bug report. Anyone who wants to do that - go ahead!

---

How did that happen?

I use \include, and I named one of the included files (which consists solely of variable assignments) init.ly. Didn't know that was a bad name choice. I went on working on my main file, and after I added the \include "init.ly" statement and compiled with console lilypond, the error message there

/usr/share/lilypond/2.20.0/ly/init.ly:43:1: error: \maininput not allowed outside init files

made me suspicious, so I renamed my init.ly file and voila, Frescobaldi was back to normal.

Answer 2

I don't think this is a Frescobaldi problem but a misunderstanding about LilyPond include files and Frescobaldi's include paths (Edit -> Preferences -> LilyPond Preferences tab at the bottom).

There already is a file called init.ly in LilyPond. Depending on how your include paths are setup, you may get this file or the file you created. If you get LilyPond's init.ly file, then things go haywire.

Notice your error message:

/usr/share/lilypond/2.20.0/ly/init.ly:43:1: error: \maininput not allowed outside init files

See that you are including LilyPond's init.ly file, not yours. If you include the full path of the file, the problem goes away:

include "/full/path/to/your/init.ly"