Trac is written in the Python programming language and needs a database, SQLite, Postgres, or MySQL. For HTML rendering, Trac uses the Genshi templating system.
What follows are generic instructions for installing and setting up Trac and its requirements. While you can find instructions for installing Trac on specific systems at TracInstallPlatforms on the main Trac site, please be sure to first read through these general instructions to get a good understanding of the tasks involved.
If you already have Python 2.5 and setuptools installed, just run this command to install the latest version of Trac:
easy_install Trac
After this skip down to creating a project environment.
| Python: | >= 2.3 (If using mod_python or mod_wsgi, 2.5 is preferred.) |
|---|---|
| setuptools: | >= 0.6 |
| Genshi: | >= 0.4.1 |
| Database: | See below |
| ClearSilver: | >= 0.9.3 optional (Needed only for using older plugins.) |
You will need database bindings for whichever database you plan to use. We highly recommend using SQLite to begin with, and then move to Postgres if you run in to problems.
Python 2.5 ships with compatible a version of the bindings included, so if you use it, stop reading here.
| SQLite: | >= 3.3.4 |
|---|---|
| PySQLite: | >= 2.3.2 |
It is possible to use the older SQLite 2.x and PySQLite 1.1.x, however you may run in to compatibility problems with some plugins and scripts. In addition you will hit many throughput and locking issues.
| Postgres: | >= 8.0 (>=8.3 requires Trac >=0.11.) |
|---|---|
| pyscopg2: | Any version |
or
| pyPgSQL: | Any version |
|---|
pyscopg2 is generally faster, and is preferred.
Caveat
MySQL has several issues that cannot be easily worked around by Trac. As such, it should only be used if there is no other option.
| MySQL: | >= 4.1 |
|---|---|
| MySQLdb: | >= 1.2.1 |
Using Subversion with Trac is optional, however if you wish to, you will need to install the Subversion Python bindings.
| Subversion: | >= 1.0 |
|---|
Note
You do NOT need to install SWIG in order to install the Python bindings.
The SWIG bindings should not be confused with PySVN, which is an unrelated project.
For other version control backends, please see VersioningSystemBackend
Trac optionally supports code syntax coloring in the source browser, and in wiki text. While Pygments is the preferred back-end for this you can install any or all of the following:
| Pygments: | >= 0.6 |
|---|---|
| SilverCity: | >= 0.9.7, 0.9.5 (0.9.6 is not compatible.) |
| Enscript: | Any version |
These Python libraries are all optional.
| docutils: | >= 0.3 (Needed for rendering reStructuredText_) |
|---|---|
| pytz: | Any version (Needed for displaying a full list of timezones, without it a smaller, internal list will be used.) |
easy_install Trac is the preferred method of installing Trac, but you can also use the more traditional style from a source bundle:
python setup.py install
To install in a non-standard path, use the --prefix option.
See Installing Python Modules for full instructions on install Python modules.
A Trac environment is the back-end storage where Trac stores information like wiki pages, tickets, reports, settings, etc. An environment is basically a directory that contains a human-readable configuration file and various other files and directories.
A new environment is created using trac-admin:
trac-admin /path/to/myproject initenv
trac-admin will prompt you for the information it needs to create the environment, such as the name of the project, the type and the path to an existing source code repository, the database connection string, and so on. If you’re not sure what to specify for one of these options, just leave it blank to use the default value. The database connection string in particular will always work as long as you have SQLite installed. Leaving the path to the source code repository empty will disable any functionality related to version control, but you can always add that back when the basic system is running.
Also note that the values you specify here can be changed later by directly editing the trac.ini configuration file.
Common paths used for the Trac environment are /var/trac and /srv/trac.
Trac offers much flexibility with its web server options. If you are not already running a server, the standalone tracd option is generally sufficient for most projects.
Once you have your Trac site up and running, you should be able to view the wiki, browse your subversion repository, view the timeline, etc.
Keep in mind that anonymous (not logged in) users can by default access most but not all of the features. You will need to configure authentication and grant additional permissions to authenticated users to see the full set of features.
Enjoy!