Get MuseScore's source code

Summary

1. Create your src folder
2. Fork MuseScore's repository
3. Clone the repository
   • Working directory
4. Set the remotes

You must have Git installed on your computer. See Set up Developer Environment.

Create your src folder

Create a folder called src to store source code projects on your machine.

Tips for creating the src folder

We recommend calling it src to keep the name as short as possible. This helps when using the terminal. Also, it's essential on Windows due to the MAX_PATH limit (see below). Avoid spaces, special characters, and non-ASCII characters in the names of all parent directories. These characters can cause problems during compilation or when running terminal commands. Ensure you have read and write permission for the src folder and all its contents. Never use sudo or "Run as administrator" to compile source code. Locate it on a drive that's internal to your machine. Using an external or network drive reduces Git performance and slows down compilation. Locate it on a modern filesystem that's native to your operating system. Native filesystems: NTFS on Windows, APFS on macOS, EXT4 or BTRFS on Linux. Using a non-native filesystem reduces Git performance and slows down compilation. Don't share it between multiple operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux, etc). Sharing between multiple operating systems reduces Git performance and can lead to corruptions. However, sharing with multiple versions of the same OS (e.g. Windows 10 & 11, or Ubuntu & Fedora) should be OK as long as a similar version of Git is used on each one. Don't use a location that's backed-up or synced by other software (e.g. iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, Syncthing, etc). Instead, make commits regularly and push them to a remote repository (your fork) to create a backup.

Windows

Create your src folder at the root of an NTFS-formatted drive, such as your C: drive:

# Change to the C: drive's root directory:
cd C:\              # PowerShell or CMD
cd /c               # Git Bash

# Create a new directory for code projects:
mkdir src

It must go at the root of the drive to avoid encountering the 260 character MAX_PATH limit Windows places on the length of file paths. (Code projects like MuseScore often contain files with long names and many layers of subdirectories, particularly inside the build folder.)

Linux and macOS

Normally, it's best to create your src folder inside your Home directory:

cd ~                # Change to your Home directory.
pwd                 # Print its full path. (See below to check it's OK!)
mkdir src           # If the path is OK, create a new directory for code projects.

However, paths with unusual characters can cause problems when you try to compile or run terminal commands.

/home/Francois-Pierre42     ✔️ OK
/Users/Francois_Pierre42    ✔️ OK
/@home/Francois+Pierre      ❓ Contains special characters (@+) but probably still OK.
/home/Francois Pierre       ❌ BAD: Contains space.
/Users/FrançoisPierre       ❌ BAD: Contains non-ASCII character 'ç'.

If this affects you, move the src folder elsewhere and run sudo chown -R "${USER}" src to make yourself the owner. (Next time you set up a user account, try to use only ASCII letters, numbers, hyphen, and underscore in the Home path.)

Fork MuseScore's repository

A 'fork' is a remote (i.e. online) copy of a repository. It can be edited freely without affecting the original repository.

Tip

If you just want to compile the code, not edit it, then you can skip this and move straight to Clone the repository.

To create a fork:

1. Sign in to GitHub (create a free account if necessary).
2. Visit MuseScore's official repository page: https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore
3. Click the "Fork" button in the top right to create your personal fork.

Your fork exists at https://github.com/USERNAME/MuseScore where USERNAME is your GitHub username (e.g. shoogle's fork is here).

Clone the repository

A clone is a local (i.e. offline) copy of a repository. It's basically a folder on your computer that contains the source code for you to edit and/or compile.

If you made a fork then you should clone it here, otherwise clone the official repository. Make the clone inside your src folder.

# Change to your src folder. For example:
cd ~/src            # Linux and macOS
cd C:\src           # Windows - PowerShell or CMD
cd /c/src           # Windows - Git Bash

# Clone your fork if you have one:
git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/MuseScore  # Replace USERNAME with your GitHub username.

# Otherwise clone the official repo:
git clone https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore

Working directory

The git clone command put the code in a new folder called "MuseScore". You should change to it now:

cd MuseScore

Unless otherwise stated, this folder is used as the working directory for all subsequent commands, including on subsequent pages of this guide.

About the MuseScore folder

Inside this folder is a hidden directory called .git, which contains Git's history of commits, branches, and tags, as well as an index, or staging area, for changes that are about to be committed. Everything outside the .git folder is known as the working tree. The commands git status and git diff show the state of the working tree compared to the index, and git diff --cached shows the state of the index compared to the latest commit on your current branch. Technically speaking, edits to the working tree are not "in the repository" until you stage them (i.e. add them to the index: git add .) and create a commit (git commit). Even then, the changes are only in your local repository. To get them included in the offical repository, see Submit a Pull Request. ⚠️ Important: You shouldn't make any changes in the working tree until after you've successfully compiled and run the program.

Set the remotes

Git is able to push (upload commits to) and pull (download commits from) remote repositories, known as "remotes".

Run these commands to set the remotes for your local repository:

# If you cloned your fork earlier:
git remote add upstream https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore.git
git remote set-url upstream --push disabled  # Prevent accidental push to official repo (team members only).
git pull upstream master                     # Get latest commits from official repo.
git branch -u upstream/master                # Track the official master branch instead of your fork's master branch.

# Optional: Use SSH instead of HTTPS for pushes (Linux & macOS only):
git remote set-url origin --push git@github.com:USERNAME/MuseScore.git  # Replace USERNAME with your GitHub username.

# If you cloned the official repo:
git remote set-url origin --push disabled    # Prevent accidental push to official repo (team members only).

Explanation

When you cloned the repository, a default remote called origin was automatically created. It points to the URL you used with git clone, which was either your fork or the official repo. When origin is a fork, the convention is to create another remote called upstream that points to the official repo. This is useful later when you want to pull new commits from the official repo in order to keep your local repo up to date with other developers' changes. We pull from the official repo but we never push to it. (Instead, we push to our forks, create PRs, and merge them via the GitHub interface.) Therefore, push should be disabled on whichever remote represents the official repo. But if you're not a team member, you don't need to worry about this because GitHub won't allow you to push to the official repo anyway. Tracking the upstream master branch means that git status will show how many commits your local master branch is ahead or behind the upstream master branch. If you're on Linux or macOS, using SSH saves having to reenter your password every time you push local commits to your fork on GitHub. However, SSH requires additional setup, and it's often blocked by firewalls on public WiFi networks, so it's only worth it for tasks that require authentication. Pulling from a public repo doesn't require authentication, but pushing does, hence we only recommend using SSH for pushes. If you're on Windows, it's better to stick with HTTPS for pushes if you want your password to be remembered.

Use this command to view the names and URLs of all remote repositories that Git is aware of:

git remote -v

Tip

You can add more with git remote add [name] [url]. This can be useful to fetch code from another user's fork.

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