Re: multiple versions on Linux

[Urs Liska]

Am 24.07.2013 08:24, schrieb address@hidden:
> Provided is the unpacked source of the lilypond version to be installed. A 
> descripton of the steps to install lilypond one finds in INSTALL.txt. More 
> infos one may find at 
> http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/contributor-big-page#compiling.
>
> Every version will be installed in a specific directory, say i. e. in a 
> directory with the version number. Makes sense beccause one remebers and finds 
> it easily. (Any directory name is possible as long as it is not already present 
> in the home directory.) Assumed, that one compiles from the subdirectory build 
> the first step is
>
> ../config --prefix=$HOME/2.16.2
>
> (Warning: actually most Linux distributions update to guile 2.0.5 - does not 
> work! Best use a gule version 1.8)
>
> Provied there are no error messages the follow up steps are
> make and
> sudo make install
>
> now there is a complete evrsion of lilipond in the directory:
>
> address@hidden:~$ ls ./2.16.2
> bin  lib  share
> address@hidden:~$ ls ./2.16.2/bin
> abc2ly      etf2ly    lilypond       lilypond-invoke-editor  midi2ly
> convert-ly  lilymidi  lilypond-book  lilysong                musicxml2ly
> address@hidden:~$ ls ./2.16.2/lib
> lilypond
> address@hidden:~$ ls ./2.16.2/lshare
> ls: cannot access ./2.16.2/lshare: No such file or directory
> address@hidden:~$ ls ./2.16.2/share
> emacs  info  lilypond  locale  man
> address@hidden:~$
>
>
>
> To use this particular version one needs a simple shell script:
>
>    #!/bin/bash
>    exec "$HOME/2.16.2/bin/lilypond" "$@"
>
> Here is assumed that one want to compile with the version 2.16.2. Save this 
> shell script to $HOME/bin, say as LP-2.16.2 (or any other), so you can call 
> that spcefic version from any direcctory
>
> address@hidden:~$ ls -l $HOME/bin/LP*
> -rw-r--r-- 1 ich ich 58 Jul 23 14:17 /home/bb/bin/LP-2.16.2
>
> Don't forget to make the file executable:
>
> address@hidden:~$ chmod u+x $HOME/bin/LP*
> address@hidden:~$  ls -l $HOME/bin/LP*
> -rwxr--r-- 1 ich ich 58 Jul 23 14:17
> address@hidden:~$
>
> Done!
>
> If one hass installed that stable version 2.16.2 in the described way you may install the 
> maybe newest unbstable version beside in the "norml" way without interference. 
> If you like to compile a lilypond file with the stable version do it this way:
> LP-12-16-2 mylilypondfile.ly
> with other version:
> lilypond mylilypondfile.ly
>
>
> Regards
I'm not 100% sure what your objectives are with your description, so I 
don't know if what I suggest is a simpler way to accomplish the same or 
a complementary approach to accomplish a similar thing. Nevertheless:

You can have multiple versions of LilyPond installed side by side, for 
example the latest stable and the latest development version.
What I do with each new release I want to install is:

Run the installation script as a normal user (to install in ~/lilypond)

~$ mv lilypond bin/lilyponds/VERSION
~$ ln -s bin/lilyponds/VERSION lilypond

If I had already installed a version that way I _start_ the process with
~$ rm lilypond
(which only removes the symlink)

This way I use the scripts in ~/bin that the install script creates and 
simply point them to the desired LilyPond installation.
Switching between installations is done by deleting the symlink and 
create a new one.

This is _my_ way, not any 'canonical' way.
Placing installations side by side and creating individual scripts is 
equally valid and may be better if you change versions often (e.g. to 
compare output of different versions).

Such a script could also be improved in various ways: A few ideas:
- Inject an additional first argument containing the version string, so
myLily 2.16.2 score.ly
would select 2.16.2 to compile
- make the script add an option to tag the output filename so the above 
call would produce the file score-2-16-2.pdf for example

Best wishes
Urs