Command line options

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This page shows old instructions for MuseScore 3.
For MuseScore 4 users, see Command line options.

MSCORE(1) — General Commands Manual Page

NAME

mscore, MuseScore3 — MuseScore 3 sheet music editor

SYNOPSIS

You can launch MuseScore from the command line by typing

mscore [options] [filename …] (Mac and Linux/BSD/Unix)
musescore [options] [filename …] (Linux/BSD/Unix)
mscore-portable [options] [filename …] (Linux AppImage)
MuseScore3.exe [options] [filename …] (Windows)

[options] and [filename] are optional. For this to work the MuseScore executable must be in %PATH% (Windows) resp. $PATH (Mac and Linux). If it is not, see Revert to factory settings for detailed instructions on how and where to find and execute the MuseScore executable from the command line on the various supported platforms.

A more detailed synopsis follows:

DESCRIPTION

MuseScore is a Free and Open Source WYSIWYG cross-platform multi-lingual music composition and notation software, released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPLv2).

Running mscore without any extra options launches the full graphical MuseScore program and opens any files specified on the command line.

The options are as follows:

-a | --use-audio driver: Use audio driver: one of jack, alsa, portaudio, pulse
-b | --bitrate bitrate: Set MP3 output bitrate in kbit/s
-c | --config-folder pathname: Override configuration and settings directory
-D | --monitor-resolution DPI: Specify monitor resolution (override autodetection)
-d | --debug: Start MuseScore in debug mode
-E | --install-extension extension file: Install an extension file; soundfonts are loaded by default unless -e is also specified
-e | --experimental: Enable experimental features, such as layers
-F | --factory-settings: Use only the standard built-in presets (“factory settings”) and delete user preferences; compare with the -R option (see also Revert to factory settings)
-f | --force: Ignore score corruption and version mismatch warnings in “converter mode”
-h | -? | --help: Display an overview of invocation instructions (doesn’t work on Windows)
-I | --dump-midi-in: Display all MIDI input on the console
-i | --load-icons: Load icons from the filesystem; useful if you want to edit the MuseScore icons and preview the changes
-j | --job file.json: Process a conversion job (see EXAMPLES below)
-L | --layout-debug: Start MuseScore in layout debug mode
-M | --midi-operations file: Specify MIDI import operations file (see EXAMPLES below)
-m | --no-midi: Disable MIDI input
-n | --new-score: Start with the New Score wizard regardless whether it’s enabled or disabled in the user preferences
-O | --dump-midi-out: Display all MIDI output on the console
-o | --export-to file: Export the given (or currently opened) file to the specified output file. The file type depends on the extension of the filename given. This option switches to “converter mode” and avoids the graphical user interface.
-P | --export-score-parts: When converting to PDF with the -o option, append each part’s pages to the created PDF file. If the score has no parts, all default parts will temporarily be generated automatically.
-p | --plugin name: Execute the named plugin
-R | --revert-settings: Use only the standard built-in presets (“factory settings”) but do not delete user preferences; compare with the -F option
-r | --image-resolution DPI: Set image resolution for conversion to PNG files. Default: 300 DPI (actually, the value of “Resolution” of the PNG option group in the Export tab of the preferences)
-S | --style style: Load a style file first; useful for use with the -o option
-s | --no-synthesizer: Disable the integrated software synthesizer
-T | --trim-image margin: Trim exported PNG and SVG images to remove whitespace surrounding the score. The specified margin, in pixels, will be retained (use 0 for a tightly cropped image). When exporting to SVG, this option only works with single-page scores.
-t | --test-mode: Set test mode flag for all files, includes --template-mode
-v | --version: Display the name and version of the application without starting the graphical user interface (doesn’t work on Windows)
-w | --no-webview: Disable the web view component in the Start Center
-x | --gui-scaling factor: Scale the score display and other GUI elements by the specified factor; intended for use with high-resolution displays
--diff: Print a conditioned diff between the given scores
--highlight-config: Set highlight to svg, generated from a given score
--long-version: Display the full name, version and git revision of the application without starting the graphical user interface (doesn’t work on Windows)
--no-fallback-font: Don’t use Bravura as fallback musical font
--raw-diff: Print a raw diff between the given scores
--run-test-script: Run script tests listed in the command line arguments
--save-online: Upload score(s) to their source URL. Replaces existing online score(s). (As of 3.6)
--score-media: Export all media (except MP3) for a given score as a single JSON document to stdout
--score-meta: Export score metadata to JSON document and print it to stdout
--score-mp3: Generate an MP3 for the given score and export it as a single JSON document to stdout
--score-parts: Generate parts data for the given score and save them to separate mscz files
--score-parts-pdf: Generate parts data for the given score and export it as a single JSON document to stdout
--score-transpose: Transpose the given score and export the data to a single JSON file, print it to stdout
--source-update: Update the source in the given score
--template-mode: Save files in template mode (e.g. without page sizes)

MuseScore also supports the automatic Qt command line options.

Batch conversion job JSON format

The argument to the -j option must be the pathname of a file comprised of a valid JSON document honoring the following specification:

The top-level element must be a JSONArray, which may be empty.
Each array element must be a JSONObject with the following keys:
- in: Value is the name of the input file (score to convert), as JSONString.
- plugin: Value is the filename of a plugin (with the .qml extension), which will be read from either the global or per-user plugin path and executed before the conversion output happens, as JSONString. Optional, but at least one of plugin and out must be given.
- out: Value is the conversion output target, as defined below. Optional, but at least one of plugin and out must be given.
The conversion output target may be a filename (with extension, which decided the format to convert to), as JSONString.
The conversion output target may be a JSONArray of filenames as JSONString, as above, which will cause the score to be written to multiple output files (in multiple output formats) sequentially, without being closed, re-opened and re-processed in between.
If the conversion output target is a JSONArray, one or more of its elements may also be, each, a JSONArray of two JSONStrings (called first and second half in the following description). This will cause part extraction: for each such two-tuple, all extant parts of the score will be saved individually, with filenames being composed by concatenating the first half, the name (title) of the part, and the second half. The resulting string must be a valid filename (with extension, determining the output format). If a score has no parts (excerpts) defined, this will be silently ignored without error.
Valid file extensions for output are:

flac

Free Lossless Audio Codec (compressed audio)

metajson

various score metadata (JSON)

mid

standard MIDI file

midi

standard MIDI file

mlog

internal file sanity check log (JSON)

mp3

MPEG Layer III (lossy compressed audio)

mpos

measure positions (XML)

mscx

uncompressed MuseScore file

mscz

compressed MuseScore file

musicxml

uncompressed MusicXML file

mxl

compressed MusicXML file

ogg

OGG Vorbis (lossy compressed audio)

pdf

portable document file (print)

png

portable network graphics (image) — Individual files, one per score page, with a hyphen-minus followed by the page number placed before the file extension, will be generated.

spos

segment positions (XML)

svg

scalable vector graphics (image)

wav

RIFF Waveform (uncompressed audio)

xml

uncompressed MusicXML file

See below for an example.

ENVIRONMENT

SKIP_LIBJACK: Set this (the value does not matter) to skip initialization of the JACK Audio Connection Kit library, in case it causes trouble.
XDG_CONFIG_HOME: User configuration location; defaults to ~/.config if unset.
XDG_DATA_HOME: User data location; defaults to ~/.local/share if unset.

Note that MuseScore also supports the normal Qt environment variables such as QT_QPA_GENERIC_PLUGINS, QT_QPA_PLATFORM, QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME, QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH, QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE, DISPLAY, etc.

FILES

/usr/share/mscore-3.0/ contains the application support data (demos, instruments, localization, system-wide plugins, soundfonts, styles, chords, templates and wallpapers). In the Debian packages, system-wide soundfonts are installed into /usr/share/sounds/sf2/, /usr/share/sounds/sf3/ or /usr/share/sounds/sfz/, respectively, instead.

The per-user data (extensions, plugins, soundfonts, styles, templates) and files (images, scores) are normally installed into subdirectories under ~/MuseScore3/ but may be changed in the configuration. Note that snapshot, alpha and beta versions use MuseScore3Development instead of MuseScore3 in all of these paths.

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/MuseScore/MuseScore3.ini contains the user preferences, list of recently used files and their locations, window sizes and positions, etc. See above for development version paths.

$XDG_DATA_HOME/data/MuseScore/MuseScore3/ contains updated localization files downloaded from within the program, plugin information, cached scores, credentials for the musescore.com community site, session information, synthesizer settings, custom key and time signatures and shortcuts. See above for development version paths.

EXAMPLES

Convert a score to PDF from the command line

mscore -o 'My Score.pdf' 'My Score.mscz'

Run a batch job converting multiple documents

mscore -j job.json

This requires the file job.json in the current working directory to have content similar to the following:

[
  {
    "in": "Reunion.mscz",
    "out": "Reunion-coloured.pdf",
    "plugin": "colornotes.qml"
  },
  {
    "in": "Reunion.mscz",
    "out": [
      "Reunion.pdf",
      [ "Reunion (part for ", ").pdf" ],
      "Reunion.musicxml",
      "Reunion.mid"
    ]
  },
  {
    "in": "Piece with excerpts.mscz",
    "out": [
      "Piece with excerpts (Partitura).pdf",
      [ "Piece with excerpts (part for ", ").pdf" ],
      "Piece with excerpts.mid"
    ]
  }
]

The last part of the job would, for example, cause files like “Piece with excerpts (part for Violin).pdf” to be generated alongside the conductor’s partitura and a MIDI file with the full orchestra sound, whereas the equivalent part of the Reunion conversion will be silently ignored (because the Reunion piece (a MuseScore demo) has no excerpts defined).

MIDI import operations

The attached midi_import_options.xml is a sample MIDI import operations file for the -M option.

DIAGNOSTICS

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

STANDARDS

MuseScore attempts to implement the following standards:

MusicXML 3.1 (score interchange format)
SF2 (SoundFont 2.01)
SF3 (SoundFont with OGG Vorbis-compressed samples)
SFZ (Sforzato soundfont)
SMuFL (Standard Music Font Layout 1.20)

HISTORY

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

AUTHORS

MuseScore is developed by MuseScore BVBA and others.

This manual page was written by mirabilos <tg@debian.org>.

CAVEATS

The automatic Qt command line options are removed from the argument vector before the application has a chance at option processing; this means that an invocation like mscore -S -reverse has no chance at working because the -reverse is removed by Qt first.

BUGS

MuseScore does not honor /etc/papersize.
Probably some more; check the project’s bug tracker (cf. SEE ALSO).

MuseScore — August 28, 2023