Re: Lilypond error behaviour

[Sharon Rosner]

And how many *programmers* actually bother to check compilation logs and fix problems that are thrown up? If you want strict error handling then add a --werror option to lilypond that just says "crash on error and let make handle it", then those people using make can deal with the lack of debug info their way.

OK, if I use the -dwarning-as-error option with the example I gave previously, lilypond will abort and not create a PDF file. From the docs (http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/usage/command_002dline-usage.en.html):

"warning-as-error #f Change all warning and ‘programming error’ messages into errors."

So the warning-as-error option causes fatal errors to really behave like fatal errors. What does this have to do with warnings exactly?

Then there’s this page (http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/usage/error-messages):

"Error: Something is definitely wrong. The current processing step (parsing, interpreting, or formatting) will be finished, but the next step will be skipped.”

In the case of a parsing error, the next step would presumably be the engraving?

"Fatal error: Something is definitely wrong, and LilyPond cannot continue. This happens rarely. The most usual cause is misinstalled fonts.”

Actually, as we’ve seen, the most usual cause would be a parsing error. And contrary to the docs, lilypond does continue, except when given the warning-as-error option. That’s pretty incoherent.

Sharon