1MSCORE(1)                 BSD General Commands Manual                MSCORE(1)
2

NAME

4     mscore, musescore — MuseScore 3 sheet music editor
5

SYNOPSIS

7     mscore [-deFfhIiLmnOPRstvw] [-a | --use-audio driver]
8            [-b | --bitrate bitrate] [-c | --config-folder pathname]
9            [-D | --monitor-resolution DPI]
10            [-E | --install-extension extension file] [-j | --job file.json]
11            [-M | --midi-operations file] [-o | --export-to file]
12            [-p | --plugin name] [-r | --image-resolution DPI]
13            [-S | --style style] [-T | --trim-image margin]
14            [-x | --gui-scaling factor] [--debug] [--diff] [--dump-midi-in]
15            [--dump-midi-out] [--experimental] [--export-score-parts]
16            [--factory-settings] [--force] [--help] [--layout-debug]
17            [--load-icons] [--long-version] [--new-score] [--no-fallback-font]
18            [--no-midi] [--no-synthesizer] [--no-webview] [--raw-diff]
19            [--revert-settings] [--run-test-script] [--save-online]
20            [--score-media] [--highlight-config] [--score-mp3] [--score-parts]
21            [--score-parts-pdf] [--score-transpose] [--source-update]
22            [--template-mode] [--test-mode] [--version] [file ...]
23

DESCRIPTION

25     MuseScore is a Free and Open Source WYSIWYG cross-platform multi-lingual
26     music composition and notation software, released under the GNU General
27     Public Licence (GPLv2).
28
29     Running mscore without any extra options launches the full graphical Mus‐
30     eScore program and opens any files specified on the command line.
31
32     The options are as follows:
33
34     -a | --use-audio driver
35             Use audio driver: one of jack, alsa, portaudio, pulse
36
37     -b | --bitrate bitrate
38             Set MP3 output bitrate in kbit/s
39
40     -c | --config-folder pathname
41             Override configuration and settings directory
42
43     -D | --monitor-resolution DPI
44             Specify monitor resolution (override autodetection)
45
46     -d | --debug
47             Start MuseScore in debug mode
48
49     -E | --install-extension extension file
50             Install an extension file; soundfonts are loaded by default
51             unless -e is also specified
52
53     -e | --experimental
54             Enable experimental features, such as layers
55
56     -F | --factory-settings
57             Revert all settings, shortcuts, workspaces, extensions, transla‐
58             tions, etc. to factory defaults; compare with the -R option
59
60     -f | --force
61             Ignore score corruption and version mismatch warnings in
62             “converter mode”
63
64     -h | --help
65             Display an overview of invocation instructions
66
67     -I | --dump-midi-in
68             Display all MIDI input on the console
69
70     -i | --load-icons
71             Load icons from the filesystem; useful if you want to edit the
72             MuseScore icons and preview the changes
73
74     -j | --job file.json
75             Process a conversion job (see EXAMPLES below)
76
77     -L | --layout-debug
78             Start MuseScore in layout debug mode
79
80     -M | --midi-operations file
81             Specify MIDI import operations file (see EXAMPLES below)
82
83     -m | --no-midi
84             Disable MIDI input
85
86     -n | --new-score
87             Start with the New Score wizard regardless whether it's enabled
88             or disabled in the user preferences
89
90     -O | --dump-midi-out
91             Display all MIDI output on the console
92
93     -o | --export-to file
94             Export the given (or currently opened) file to the specified out‐
95             put file.  The file type depends on the extension of the filename
96             given.  This option switches to “converter mode” and avoids the
97             graphical user interface.
98
99     -P | --export-score-parts
100             When converting to PDF with the -o option, append each part's
101             pages to the created PDF file.  If the score has no parts, all
102             default parts will temporarily be generated automatically.
103
104     -p | --plugin name
105             Execute the named plugin
106
107     -R | --revert-settings
108             Revert user preferences to factory default but retain shortcuts,
109             workspaces, extensions, translations, etc.; compare with -F.
110
111     -r | --image-resolution DPI
112             Set image resolution for conversion to PNG files.
113
114             Default: 360 DPI (actually, the value of “Resolution” of the PNG
115             option group in the Export tab of the preferences)
116
117     -S | --style style
118             Load a style file first; useful for use with the -o option
119
120     -s | --no-synthesizer
121             Disable the integrated software synthesiser
122
123     -T | --trim-image margin
124             Trim exported PNG and SVG images to remove whitespace surrounding
125             the score.  The specified margin, in pixels, will be retained
126             (use 0 for a tightly cropped image).  When exporting to SVG, this
127             option only works with single-page scores.
128
129     -t | --test-mode
130             Set test mode flag for all files
131
132     -v | --version
133             Display the name and version of the application without starting
134             the graphical user interface
135
136     -w | --no-webview
137             Disable the web view component in the Start Centre
138
139     -x | --gui-scaling factor
140             Scale the score display and other GUI elements by the specified
141             factor; intended for use with high-resolution displays
142
143     --diff  Print a conditioned diff between the given scores
144
145     --long-version
146             Display the full name, version and git revision of the applica‐
147             tion without starting the graphical user interface
148
149     --no-fallback-font
150             Don't use a fallback musical font
151
152     --raw-diff
153             Print a raw diff between the given scores
154
155     --run-test-script
156             Run script tests listed in the command line arguments
157
158     --save-online
159             Upload score(s) to its source URL. There must already be an
160             online score at that URL, and the user must be signed-in to the
161             account it belongs to. The online score will be replaced with the
162             uploaded file, but the title and description of the online
163             score's webpage will not change.
164
165     --score-media
166             Export all media (except MP3) for a given score as a single JSON
167             document to stdout
168
169     --highlight-config
170             Set highlight to svg, generated from a given score
171
172     --score-mp3
173             Generate an MP3 for the given score and export it as a single
174             JSON document to stdout
175
176     --score-parts
177             Generate parts data for the given score and save them to separate
178             mscz files
179
180     --score-parts-pdf
181             Generate parts data for the given score and export it as a single
182             JSON document to stdout
183
184     --score-transpose
185             Transpose the given score and export the data to a single JSON
186             file, print it to stdout
187
188     --source-update
189             Update the source in the given score
190
191     --template-mode
192             Save files in template mode (e.g. without page sizes)
193
194     MuseScore supports the automatic Qt command line options (see below).
195
196   Batch conversion job JSON format
197     The argument to the -j option must be the pathname of a file comprised of
198     a valid JSON document honouring the following specification:
199
200     ·   The top-level element must be a JSONArray, which may be empty.
201
202     ·   Each array element must be a JSONObject with the following keys:
203
204         in      Value is the name of the input file (score to convert), as
205                 JSONString.
206
207         plugin  Value is the filename of a plugin (with the .qml extension),
208                 which will be read from either the global or per-user plugin
209                 path and executed before the conversion output happens, as
210                 JSONString.  Optional, but at least one of plugin and out
211                 must be given.
212
213         out     Value is the conversion output target, as defined below.
214                 Optional, but at least one of plugin and out must be given.
215
216     ·   The conversion output target may be a filename (with extension, which
217         decided the format to convert to), as JSONString.
218
219     ·   The conversion output target may be a JSONArray of filenames as JSON‐
220         String, as above, which will cause the score to be written to multi‐
221         ple output files (in multiple output formats) sequentially, without
222         being closed, re-opened and re-processed in between.
223
224     ·   If the conversion output target is a JSONArray, one or more of its
225         elements may also be, each, a JSONArray of two JSONStrings (called
226         first and second half in the following description).  This will cause
227         part extraction: for each such two-tuple, all extant parts of the
228         score will be saved individually, with filenames being composed by
229         concatenating the first half, the name (title) of the part, and the
230         second half.  The resulting string must be a valid filename (with
231         extension, determining the output format).  If a score has no parts
232         (excerpts) defined, this will be silently ignored without error.
233
234     ·   Valid file extensions for output are:
235
236         flac      Free Lossless Audio Codec (compressed audio)
237
238         metajson  various score metadata (JSON)
239
240         mid       standard MIDI file
241
242         midi      standard MIDI file
243
244         mlog      internal file sanity check log (JSON)
245
246         mp3       MPEG Layer III (lossy compressed audio)
247
248         mpos      measure positions (XML)
249
250         mscx      uncompressed MuseScore file
251
252         mscz      compressed MuseScore file
253
254         musicxml  uncompressed MusicXML file
255
256         mxl       compressed MusicXML file
257
258         ogg       OGG Vorbis (lossy compressed audio)
259
260         pdf       portable document file (print)
261
262         png       portable network graphics (image)
263
264                   Individual files, one per score page, with a hyphen-minus
265                   followed by the page number placed before the file exten‐
266                   sion, will be generated.
267
268         spos      segment positions (XML)
269
270         svg       scalable vector graphics (image)
271
272         wav       RIFF Waveform (uncompressed audio)
273
274         xml       uncompressed MusicXML file
275
276     See below for an example.
277

ENVIRONMENT

279     SKIP_LIBJACK
280             Set this (the value does not matter) to skip initialisation of
281             the JACK Audio Connection Kit library, in case it causes trouble.
282
283     XDG_CONFIG_HOME
284             User configuration location; defaults to ~/.config if unset.
285
286     XDG_DATA_HOME
287             User data location; defaults to ~/.local/share if unset.
288
289     XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR
290             Location of works the user created with the application; defaults
291             to ~/Documents (or a localised version) and can be set in
292             $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs.
293
294     Note that MuseScore also supports the normal Qt environment variables
295     such as QT_QPA_GENERIC_PLUGINS, QT_QPA_PLATFORM, QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME,
296     QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH, QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE, DISPLAY, etc.
297

FILES

299     /usr/share/mscore-3.6/ contains the application support data (demos,
300     instruments, localisation, system-wide plugins, soundfonts, styles,
301     chords, templates and wallpapers).  In the Debian packages, system-wide
302     soundfonts are installed into /usr/share/sounds/sf2/,
303     /usr/share/sounds/sf3/ or /usr/share/sounds/sfz/, respectively, instead.
304
305     The per-user data (extensions, plugins, soundfonts, styles, templates)
306     and files (images, scores) are normally installed into subdirectories
307     under $XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR/MuseScore3/ but may be changed in the configura‐
308     tion.  Note that snapshot, alpha and beta versions use
309     MuseScore3Development instead of MuseScore3 in all of these paths.
310
311     $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/MuseScore/MuseScore3.ini contains the user preferences,
312     list of recently used files and their locations, window sizes and posi‐
313     tions, etc.  See above for development version paths.
314
315     $XDG_DATA_HOME/MuseScore/MuseScore3/ contains updated localisation files
316     downloaded from within the program, plugin information, cached scores,
317     credentials for the musescore.com community site, session information,
318     synthesiser settings, custom key and time signatures and shortcuts.  See
319     above for development version paths.
320

EXAMPLES

322     Convert a score to PDF from the command line:
323
324           mscore -o 'My Score.pdf' 'My Score.mscz'
325
326     Run a batch job converting multiple documents:
327
328           mscore -j job.json
329
330     This requires the file job.json in the current working directory to have
331     content similar to the following:
332
333           [
334             {
335               "in": "Reunion.mscz",
336               "out": "Reunion-coloured.pdf",
337               "plugin": "colornotes.qml"
338             },
339             {
340               "in": "Reunion.mscz",
341               "out": [
342                 "Reunion.pdf",
343                 [ "Reunion (part for ", ").pdf" ],
344                 "Reunion.musicxml",
345                 "Reunion.mid"
346               ]
347             },
348             {
349               "in": "Piece with excerpts.mscz",
350               "out": [
351                 "Piece with excerpts (Partitura).pdf",
352                 [ "Piece with excerpts (part for ", ").pdf" ],
353                 "Piece with excerpts.mid"
354               ]
355             }
356           ]
357
358     The last part of the job would, for example, cause files like “Piece with
359     excerpts (part for Violin).pdf” to be generated alongside the conductor's
360     partitura and a MIDI file with the full orchestra sound, whereas the
361     equivalent part of the Reunion conversion will be silently ignored
362     (because the Reunion piece (a MuseScore demo) has no excerpts defined).
363
364     https://musescore.org/sites/musescore.org/files/midi_import_options_0.xml
365     is a sample MIDI import operations file for the -M option.
366

DIAGNOSTICS

368     The mscore utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
369

SEE ALSO

371     fluidsynth(1), midicsv(1), timidity(1), qtoptions(7)
372
373     https://musescore.org/handbook
374             Online Handbook, full user manual
375
376     https://musescore.org/forum
377             Support Forum
378
379     https://musescore.org/handbook/command-line-options-0
380             Further documentation of command line options
381
382     https://musescore.org/handbook/revert-factory-settings-0
383             Reverting to factory settings (troubleshooting)
384
385     https://musescore.org/project/issues
386             Project Issue Tracker
387
388             Please check first to if the bug you're encountering has already
389             been reported.  If you just need help with something, then please
390             use the support forum (see above) instead.
391
392     http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qguiapplication.html#supported-command-line-options
393             Documentation of automatic Qt command line options
394

STANDARDS

396     MuseScore attempts to implement the following standards:
397
398     ·   MusicXML 3.1 (score interchange format)
399
400     ·   SF2 (SoundFont 2.01)
401
402     ·   SF3 (SoundFont with OGG Vorbis-compressed samples)
403
404     ·   SFZ (Sforzato soundfont)
405
406     ·   SMuFL (Standard Music Font Layout 1.30)
407

HISTORY

409     MuseScore was split off the MusE sequencer in 2002 and has since become
410     the foremost Open Source notation software.
411

AUTHORS

413     MuseScore is developed by MuseScore BVBA and others.
414
415     This manual page was written by mirabilos <tg@debian.org>.
416

CAVEATS

418     The automatic Qt command line options are removed from the argument vec‐
419     tor before the application has a chance at option processing; this means
420     that an invocation like
421
422           mscore -S -reverse
423
424     has no chance at working because the -reverse is removed by Qt first.
425

BUGS

427     MuseScore does not honour /etc/papersize.
428
429     Probably some more; check the project's bug tracker (cf. SEE ALSO).
430
431MuseScore                      Janurary 12, 2021                     MuseScore
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