Incorporating Lilypond files in (La)TeX

Question

I am trying to incorporate Lilypond files into LaTeX. I use MacOS Sonoma 14.1.1. TexShop (5.2.2) and write my Lilypond files in Frescobaldi 3.3.0, where they compile into pdf files without a problem.

This question has been asked before, I am incorporating the answer of How to run `--shell-escape` for LuaLaTeX in Texshop, in particular the steps:

I just have an Engine file to do this, or use the arara engine. Save the following file as lualatex-shell.engine in ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines.

#!/bin/tcsh
set path= ($path /usr/texbin /usr/local/bin)
lualatex --shell-escape --file-line-error --synctex=1 "$1"

In the Terminal type:

chmod +x ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines/lualatex-shell.engine

Then restart TeXShop and you can invoke it either by choosing it from the Program item in the Macros menu, or by adding a magic comment line:

% !TEX TS-program = lualatex-shell

I follow all these steps diligently and apply this to several lilypond examples, e.g. my file test4.tex

!TEX TS-program = lualatex-shell
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lyluatex}
\begin{document}
\begin{lilypond}
\relative{\time 8/4       \key g \major   g'4 a b c d e fis g}
\end{lilypond}
\end{document}

But when I Typeset it in TeXshop or use the terminal I get the following error

(lyluatex) Compiling score tmp-ly/e0245313228d92c30cf69cc0a8ddc120 with LilyPond executable 'lilypond'. ...ocal/t exlive/2023/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ltluatex.lua:110: Module lyluatex Error: LilyPond could not be started. (lyluatex) Please check that LuaLaTeX is started with the (lyluatex) --shell-escape option, and that 'program' (lyluatex) points to a valid LilyPond executable. (lyluatex) on input line 9

stack traceback: [C]: in function 'error' ...ocal/texlive/2023/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ltluatex.lua:110: in function < ...ocal/texlive/2023/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ltluatex.lua:109> (...tail calls...) ./lyluatex.lua:1106: in method 'process' [\directlua]:1: in main chunk. \ly@compilescore ...directlua {ly.score:process()}

l.9 \end{lilypond}

I am complete at a loss here as it seems to know the lyluatex package but find an error in a lilypond code.

Can anyone help me resolve this.

Please note that I am not a (La)TeX expert keep it simple if you can !

Answer 1

So there are two issues here. The first is how your lilypond is installed. I have it installed using homebrew, and so the location of my lilypond executable is in /opt/homebrew/bin. If you didn't install it that way, then your executable maybe somewhere else, and you need to be able to tell your Engine file where to find it. If you install lilypond with homebrew you simply need to add /opt/homebrew/bin to the path in the Engine file:

set path= ($path /usr/texbin /usr/local/bin /opt/homebrew/bin)
lualatex --shell-escape --file-line-error --synctex=1 "$1"

And then you can use this Engine to compile your file. But until you have a way to run lilypond from the command line it won't work. Once you do get it running, then you need to replace the /opt/homebrew/bin path with whatever is the actual path of your lilypond executable.

If you installed lilypond by simply unzipping the .zip file from the lilypond.org download page, then you have a folder lilypond-2.24.3 (the actual version number might be different) somewhere in your machine. Assuming you put this into your Applications folder, then the path to lilypond you would put into the Engine would be:

/Applications/lilypond-2.24.3/bin

This will not let you run lilypond from the command line without further adding this path to your shell .profile (or equivalent). For this reason, I would recommend installing lilypond with homebrew, since it will correctly set the path for any homebrew installed software.