Trac Installation Guide for 1.4

Trac is written in the Python programming language and needs a database,​SQLite,​PostgreSQL, or​MySQL. For HTML rendering, Trac uses the​Jinja2 templating system, though Genshi templates are supported until Trac 1.5.1.

Trac can also be localized, and there is probably a translation available in your language. If you want to use the Trac interface in other languages, then make sure you have installed the optional packageBabel. Pay attention to the extra steps for localization support in theInstalling Trac section below. Lacking Babel, you will only get the default English version.

If you're interested in contributing new translations for other languages or enhancing the existing translations, please have a look atTracL10N.

What follows are generic instructions for installing and setting up Trac. While you may find instructions for installing Trac on specific systems atTracInstallPlatforms, pleasefirst read through these general instructions to get a good understanding of the tasks involved.

Installation Steps

1. Dependencies
   1. Mandatory Dependencies
   2. Optional Dependencies
2. Installing Trac
   1. Usingpip
   2. Using installer
   3. Using package manager
3. Creating a Project Environment
4. Deploying Trac
   1. Running the Standalone Server
   2. Running Trac on a Web Server
5. Configuring Authentication
6. Granting admin rights to the admin user
7. Configuring Trac
8. Using Trac

Dependencies

Mandatory Dependencies

To install Trac, the following software packages must be installed:

• ​Python, version ≥ 2.7 and < 3.0(note that we dropped the support for Python 2.6 in this release)
• ​setuptools, version ≥ 0.6
• ​Jinja2, version ≥ 2.9.3

You also need a database system and the corresponding Python bindings. The database can be either SQLite, PostgreSQL or MySQL.

For the SQLite database

You already have the SQLite database bindings bundled with the standard distribution of Python (thesqlite3 module).

Optionally, you may install a newer version of​pysqlite than the one provided by the Python distribution. SeePySqlite for details.

For the PostgreSQL database

You need to install the database and its Python bindings:

• ​PostgreSQL, version 9.1 or later
• ​psycopg2, version 2.0 or later

SeeDatabaseBackend for details.

For the MySQL database

Trac works well with MySQL, provided you use the following:

• ​MySQL, version 5.0 or later
• ​PyMySQL

Given the caveats and known issues surrounding MySQL, read carefully theMySqlDb page before creating the database.

Optional Dependencies

Subversion

​Subversion, 1.6.x or later and thecorresponding Python bindings.

There are​pre-compiled SWIG bindings available for various platforms. Seegetting Subversion for more information.

For troubleshooting information, see theTracSubversion page.

Git

​Git 1.5.6 or later is supported. More information is available on theTracGit page.

Other Version Control Systems

Support for other version control systems is provided via third-party plugins. SeePluginList#VersionControlSystems andVersionControlSystem.

Web Server

A web server is optional because Trac is shipped with a server included, see theRunning the Standalone Server section below.

Alternatively you can configure Trac to run in any of the following environments:

• ​Apache with
  • ​mod_wsgi, seeTracModWSGI and​ModWSGI IntegrationWithTrac.
  • ​mod_python 3.5.0, seeTracModPython
• a​FastCGI-capable web server (seeTracFastCgi)
• an​AJP-capable webserver (seeTracOnWindowsIisAjp)
• Microsoft IIS with FastCGI and a FastCGI-to-WSGI gateway (seeIIS with FastCGI)
• a CGI-capable web server (seeTracCgi),but usage of Trac as a cgi scriptis highly discouraged, better use one of the previous options.

Other Python Packages

• ​Babel, version 0.9.6 or ≥ 1.3,needed for localization support
• ​pytz to get a complete list of time zones,otherwise Trac will fall back on a shorter list froman internal time zone implementation. Installing Babelwill install pytz.
• ​docutils, version ≥ 0.3.9forWikiRestructuredText.
• ​Pygments forsyntax highlighting.
• ​Textile for rendering the​Textile markup language.
• ​passlib on Windows to decodehtpasswd formats other thanSHA-1.
• ​pyreadline on Windows for trac-admincommand completion.

Please refer to the documentation of these packages to find out how they are best installed. In addition, most of theplatform-specific instructions also describe the installation of the dependencies. Keep in mind however that the information thereprobably concern older versions of Trac than the one you're installing.

Installing Trac

Thetrac-admin command-line tool, used to create and maintainproject environments, as well as thetracd standalone server are installed along with Trac. There are several methods for installing Trac.

It is assumed throughout this guide that you have elevated permissions as theroot user or by prefixing commands withsudo. The umask0002 should be used for a typical installation on a Unix-based platform.

Usingpip

pip is the modern Python package manager and is included in Python 2.7.9 and later. Use​get-pip.py to installpip for earlier versions.

$ pip install Trac

pip will automatically resolve therequired dependencies (Jinja2 and setuptools) and download the latest packages from pypi.org.

You can also install directly from a source package. You can obtain the source in a tar or zip from theTracDownload page. After extracting the archive, change to the directory containingsetup.py and run:

$ pip install .

pip supports numerous other install mechanisms. It can be passed the URL of an archive or other download location. Here are some examples:

• Install the latest development version from a tar archive:

  $ pip install https://download.edgewall.org/trac/Trac-latest-dev.tar.gz

• Install the unreleased 1.2-stable from subversion:

  $ pip install svn+https://svn.edgewall.org/repos/trac/branches/1.2-stable

• Install the latest development preview (not recommended for production installs):

  $ pip install --find-links=https://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/TracDownload Trac

The optional dependencies can be installed from PyPI usingpip:

$ pip install babel docutils pygments textile

The optional dependencies can alternatively bespecified using theextras keys in the setup file:

$ pip install Trac[babel,rest,pygments,textile]

rest is the extra that installs thedocutilsdependency.

Includemysql orpsycopg2-binary in thelist if using the MySQL or PostgreSQL database.

Additionally, you can install several Trac plugins from PyPI (listed​here) using pip. SeeTracPlugins for more information.

Using installer

On Windows, Trac can be installed using the exe installers available on theTracDownload page. Installers are available for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Python. Make sure to use the installer that matches the architecture of your Python installation.

Using package manager

Trac may be available in your platform's package repository. However, your package manager may not provide the latest release of Trac.

Creating a Project Environment

ATrac environment is the backend where Trac stores information like wiki pages, tickets, reports, settings, etc. An environment is a directory that contains a human-readableconfiguration file, and other files and directories.

A new environment is created usingtrac-admin:

$ trac-admin /path/to/myproject initenv

trac-admin will prompt you for the information it needs to create the environment: the name of the project and thedatabase connection string. If you're not sure what to specify for any of these options, just press<Enter> to use the default value.

Using the default database connection string will always work as long as you have SQLite installed. For the otherdatabase backends you should plan ahead and already have a database ready to use at this point.

Also note that the values you specify here can be changed later usingTracAdmin or directly editing theconf/trac.ini configuration file.

Finally, make sure the user account under which the web front-end runs will havewrite permissions to the environment directory and all the files inside. This will be the case if you runtrac-admin ... initenv as this user. If not, you should set the correct user afterwards. For example on Linux, with the web server running as userapache and groupapache, enter:

$ chown -R apache:apache /path/to/myproject

The actual username and groupname of the apache server may not be exactlyapache, and are specified in the Apache configuration file by the directivesUser andGroup (if Apachehttpd is what you use).

Deploying Trac

exportPKG_RESOURCES_CACHE_ZIP_MANIFESTS=1

$PKG_RESOURCES_CACHE_ZIP_MANIFESTS=1 tracd --port8000 /path/to/myproject

Running the Standalone Server

After having created a Trac environment, you can easily try the web interface by running the standalone servertracd:

$ tracd --port8000 /path/to/myproject

Then, open a browser and visithttp://localhost:8000/. You should get a simple listing of all environments thattracd knows about. Follow the link to the environment you just created, and you should see Trac in action. If you only plan on managing a single project with Trac you can have the standalone server skip the environment list by starting it like this:

$ tracd -s --port8000 /path/to/myproject

Running Trac on a Web Server

Trac provides various options for connecting to a "real" web server:

• FastCGI
• Apache with mod_wsgi
• Apache with mod_python
• CGI(should not be used, as the performance is far from optimal)

Trac also supportsAJP which may be your choice if you want to connect to IIS. Other deployment scenarios are possible:nginx,​uwsgi,Isapi-wsgi etc.

Generating the Trac cgi-bin directory

Application scripts for CGI, FastCGI and mod-wsgi can be generated using thetrac-admindeploy command:

deploy <directory>    Extract static resources from Trac and all plugins

Grant the web server execution right on scripts in thecgi-bin directory.

For example, the following yields a typical directory structure:

$ mkdir -p /var/trac$ trac-admin /var/trac/<project> initenv$ trac-admin /var/trac/<project> deploy /var/www$ ls /var/wwwcgi-bin htdocs$ chmod ugo+x /var/www/cgi-bin/*

Mapping Static Resources

Without additional configuration, Trac will handle requests for static resources such as stylesheets and images. For anything other than aTracStandalone deployment, this is not optimal as the web server can be set up to directly serve the static resources. For CGI setup, this ishighly undesirable as it causes abysmal performance.

Web servers such as​Apache allow you to createAliases to resources, giving them a virtual URL that doesn't necessarily reflect their location on the file system. We can map requests for static resources directly to directories on the file system, to avoid Trac processing the requests.

There are two primary URL paths for static resources:/chrome/common and/chrome/site. Plugins can add their own resources, usually accessible at the/chrome/<plugin> path.

A single/chrome alias can used if the static resources are extracted for all plugins. This means that thedeploy command (discussed in the previous section) must be executed after installing or updating a plugin that provides static resources, or after modifying resources in the$env/htdocs directory. This is probably appropriate for most installations but may not be what you want if, for example, you wish to upload plugins through thePlugins administration page.

Thedeploy command creates anhtdocs directory with:

• common/ - the static resources of Trac
• site/ - a copy of the environment'shtdocs/ directory
• shared - the static resources shared by multiple Trac environments, with a location defined by the[inherit]htdocs_dir option
• <plugin>/ - one directory for each resource directory provided by the plugins enabled for this environment

The example that follows will create a single/chrome alias. If that isn't the correct approach for your installation you simply need to create more specific aliases:

Alias/trac/chrome/common/path/to/trac/htdocs/commonAlias/trac/chrome/site/path/to/trac/htdocs/siteAlias/trac/chrome/shared/path/to/trac/htdocs/sharedAlias/trac/chrome/<plugin>/path/to/trac/htdocs/<plugin>

Example: Apache andScriptAlias

Assuming the deployment has been done this way:

$ trac-admin /var/trac/<project> deploy /var/www/trac

Add the following snippet to Apache configuration, changing paths to match your deployment. The snippet must be placedbefore theScriptAlias orWSGIScriptAlias directive, because those directives map all requests to the Trac application:

Alias/trac/chrome/var/www/trac/htdocs<Directory"/var/www/trac/htdocs"># For Apache 2.2<IfModule!mod_authz_core.c>Order allow,denyAllow fromall</IfModule># For Apache 2.4<IfModulemod_authz_core.c>Requireall granted</IfModule></Directory>

If using mod_python, add this too, otherwise the alias will be ignored:

<Location"/trac/chrome/common">SetHandlerNone</Location>

Alternatively, if you wish to serve static resources directly from your project'shtdocs directory rather than the location to which the files are extracted with thedeploy command, you can configure Apache to serve those resources. Again, put thisbefore theScriptAlias orWSGIScriptAlias for the .*cgi scripts, and adjust names and locations to match your installation:

Alias/trac/chrome/site/path/to/projectenv/htdocs<Directory"/path/to/projectenv/htdocs"># For Apache 2.2<IfModule!mod_authz_core.c>Order allow,denyAllow fromall</IfModule># For Apache 2.4<IfModulemod_authz_core.c>Requireall granted</IfModule></Directory>

Another alternative to aliasing/trac/chrome/common is having Trac generate direct links for those static resources (and only those), using thetrac.htdocs_location configuration setting:

[trac]htdocs_location=http://static.example.org/trac-common/

Note that this makes it easy to have a dedicated domain serve those static resources, preferentially cookie-less.

Of course, you still need to make the Trachtdocs/common directory available through the web server at the specified URL, for example by copying (or linking) the directory into the document root of the web server:

$ ln -s /path/to/trac/htdocs/common /var/www/static.example.org/trac-common

Setting up the Plugin Cache

Some Python plugins need to be extracted to a cache directory. By default the cache resides in the home directory of the current user. When running Trac on a Web Server as a dedicated user (which is highly recommended) who has no home directory, this might prevent the plugins from starting. To override the cache location you can set thePYTHON_EGG_CACHE environment variable. Refer to your server documentation for detailed instructions on how to set environment variables.

Configuring Authentication

Trac uses HTTP authentication. You'll need to configure your webserver to request authentication when the.../login URL is hit (the virtual path of the "login" button). Trac will automatically pick theREMOTE_USER variable up after you provide your credentials. Therefore, all user management goes through your web server configuration. Please consult the documentation of your web server for more info.

The process of adding, removing, and configuring user accounts for authentication depends on the specific way you run Trac.

Please refer to one of the following sections:

• TracStandalone#UsingAuthentication if you use the standalone server,tracd.
• TracModWSGI#ConfiguringAuthentication if you use the Apache web server, with any of its front end:mod_wsgi,mod_python,mod_fcgi ormod_fastcgi.
• TracFastCgi if you're using another web server with FCGI support (Cherokee, Lighttpd, LiteSpeed, nginx)

TracAuthenticationIntroduction also contains some useful information for beginners.

Granting admin rights to the admin user

Grant admin rights to user admin:

$ trac-admin /path/to/myproject permission add admin TRAC_ADMIN

This user will have anAdmin navigation item that directs to pages for administering your Trac project.

Configuring Trac

Configuration options are documented on theTracIni page.

TracRepositoryAdmin provides information on configuring version control repositories for your project.

In addition to the optional version control backends, Trac provides several optional features that are disabled by default:

• Fine-grained permission policy
• Custom permissions
• Ticket deletion
• Ticket cloning
• Ticket changeset references

Using Trac

Once you have your Trac site up and running, you should be able to create tickets, view the timeline, browse your version control repository if configured, etc.

Keep in mind thatanonymous (not logged in) users can by default access only a few of the features, in particular they will have a read-only access to the resources. You will need to configure authentication and grant additionalpermissions to authenticated users to see the full set of features.

Enjoy!

The Trac Team

See also:TracInstallPlatforms,TracGuide,TracUpgrade