Re: Lilypond newbie can't compile

[Robin Bannister]

William Zeitler wrote:

> It fails to compile:
>
> Processing `C:/Users/william/Documents/Untitled.ly'
> Parsing...
> Interpreting music...
> Preprocessing graphical objects...
> Finding the ideal number of pages...
> Fitting music on 1 page...
> Drawing systems...
> Layout output to `Untitled.ps'...
> Converting to `./Untitled.pdf'...
> warning: `(gs -q -dNOSAFER -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=595.28
> -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=841.89 -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH
> -r1200 -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=./Untitled.pdf -c.setpdfwrite
> -fUntitled.ps)' failed (1)
>
> fatal error: failed files: "Untitled.ly"

This is a newbie problem.

You are using a pdf viewer such as Adobe Reader
which locks the file it is displaying.

In the above log, LilyPond compiles successfully, producing a .ps.
But the subsequent ghostscript conversion from .ps to .pdf fails,
because Adobe Reader won't let it write to the .pdf.

The .ps file is partly readable; the gibberish parts are the fonts.


Your case is mentioned at the bottom of this page:
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/web/windows

The same page is in the Learning Manual (required reading) at
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/learning/windows


So always terminate Adobe Reader before recompiling.
Or use a non-blocking viewer such as SumatraPDF.


Cheers,
Robin