Trac Storage - The Environment

Trac uses a directory structure and a database for storing project data.

Creating an Environment

A new Trac environment is created using trac-admin: 

$ trac-admin /path/to/projectenv initenv

trac-admin will ask you for the name of the project, the

database connection string (explained below), and where your subversion

repository is located.

Note: The web server user will require file system write permission to

the environment directory and all the files inside. Please remember to set

the appropriate permissions. The same applies to the Subversion

repository, although Trac will only require read access as long as you're

not using the BDB file system.

Database Connection Strings

Since version 0.9, Trac supports both SQLite and

PostgreSQL as database backends. The default

is to use SQLite, which is probably sufficient for most projects. The database file

is then stored in the environment directory, and can easily be

backed up together with the rest of the environment.

The connection string for an embedded SQLite database is: 

sqlite:db/trac.db

If you want to use PostgreSQL instead, you'll have to use a different

connection string. For example, to connect to a database on the same

machine called trac, that allows access to the user johndoe with

the password letmein, use: 

postgres://johndoe:letmein@localhost/trac

If PostgreSQL is running on a non-standard port (for example 9342), use: 

postgres://johndoe:letmein@localhost:9342/trac

Note that with PostgreSQL you will have to create the database before running

trac-admin initenv.

Directory Structure

An environment directory will usually consist of the following files and directories:

  • README - Brief description of the environment.
  • VERSION - Contains the environment version identifier.
  • attachments - Attachments to wiki pages and tickets are stored here.
  • conf
  • trac.ini - Main configuration file. See TracIni.
  • db
  • trac.db - The SQLite database (if you're using SQLite).
  • plugins - Environment-specific plugins (Python eggs)
  • templates - Custom environment-specific templates.
  • site_css.cs - Custom CSS rules.
  • site_footer.cs - Custom page footer.
  • site_header.cs - Custom page header.

See also: TracAdmin, TracBackup, TracIni, TracGuide