How do I use full bar rests in lilypond with long bar lengths

Question

I am working with a file that has some bars of very long duration (the first bar of the piece is in 20/8), and simply putting R1 will not give me a full bar rest. In the following bar of 8/8, it works perfectly well, but nothing I do will make it work for these more awkward very long bars. In the log, I get

/var/folders/zw/_lwqqr5n7_b5th2s8vr1ck140000gn/T/frescobaldi-kbs0qgv0/tmpk6r0vi2i/Quintet.ly:24:3: warning: barcheck failed at: 1

R1

Preprocessing graphical objects...

programming error: Multi_measure_rest::get_rods (): I am not spanned!

continuing, cross fingers

programming error: Object is not a markup.

continuing, cross fingers

programming error: Multi_measure_rest::get_rods (): I am not spanned!

When I input several full measure rests whos duration is equal to the full bar, it does export a full bar, but it still throws an error

/var/folders/zw/_lwqqr5n7_b5th2s8vr1ck140000gn/T/frescobaldi-kbs0qgv0/tmpk6r0vi2i/Quintet.ly:24:3: warning: barcheck failed at: 1

R1 R2 R1

/var/folders/zw/_lwqqr5n7_b5th2s8vr1ck140000gn/T/frescobaldi-kbs0qgv0/tmpk6r0vi2i/Quintet.ly:24:6: warning: barcheck failed at: 3/2

R1

R2 R1

I'd prefer not to go through this entire thing with lots of errors being thrown if possible. Are there any easy fixes? I can't just break up the bar, what I'm doing is essentially a transcription and I am to be as accurate to the manuscript as possible.

Answer 1

For a full bar rests, you should use a capital R (as you have).

If the time signature is 4/4 or similar you then put the duration of a full bar: R1|

If you're in a time signature that is filled by another single or dotted duration say 6/8, put this duration instead: R2.|

But, when the time signature is not filled by a single or dotted duration, as in your example 20/8, you can "multiply" by the time signature: R1*20/8|

For several full bar rests in a row, you can again multiply by the number of bars that you want (say three): R1*20/8*3|