I'm using Trac more and more at work and thought I'd do a few posts (mainly for me to remember things) that I thought would be helpful to others just starting out...
Once you have Trac installed setting up a new 'instance' of Trac is easy. Everything is done using the command line.
If you simply type in trac-admin at the command line you will get back a long list of available commands with some brief help on each one.
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trac-admin
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...
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initenv
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-- Create and initialize a new environment interactively
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initenv <projectname> <db> <repostype> <repospath> <templatepath>
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-- Create and initialize a new environment from arguments
To setup a new instance of Trac we'll use the initenv command. Modify your path to meet your system.
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sudo trac-admin /var/www/trac/projectname initenv
Depending on your environment you may need to change the owner of the newly created Trac directory:
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sudo chown -R apache:apache projectname
Upon execution you will be asked a series of questions: Trac name, SVN path, etc. For the most part you can accept the defaults for most of these. They can be changed later either through Trac itself or by editing the trac.ini file (located in /var/www/trac/projectname/conf/trac.ini).
Next I usually adjust permissions on the newly setup Trac. To get a list of existing permissions use the permission command:
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sudo trac-admin /var/www/trac/projectname permission list
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User Action
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---------------------------------
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anonymous BROWSER_VIEW
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anonymous CHANGESET_VIEW
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anonymous FILE_VIEW
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anonymous LOG_VIEW
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anonymous MILESTONE_VIEW
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anonymous REPORT_SQL_VIEW
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anonymous REPORT_VIEW
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anonymous ROADMAP_VIEW
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anonymous SEARCH_VIEW
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anonymous TICKET_VIEW
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anonymous TIMELINE_VIEW
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anonymous WIKI_VIEW
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anonymous TICKET_CREATE
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anonymous TICKET_MODIFY
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anonymous WIKI_CREATE
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anonymous WIKI_MODIFY
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Available actions:
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BROWSER_VIEW, CHANGESET_VIEW, CONFIG_VIEW, FILE_VIEW, LOG_VIEW,
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MILESTONE_ADMIN, MILESTONE_CREATE, MILESTONE_DELETE, MILESTONE_MODIFY,
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MILESTONE_VIEW, REPORT_ADMIN, REPORT_CREATE, REPORT_DELETE, REPORT_MODIFY,
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REPORT_SQL_VIEW, REPORT_VIEW, ROADMAP_ADMIN, ROADMAP_VIEW, SEARCH_VIEW,
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TICKET_ADMIN, TICKET_APPEND, TICKET_CHGPROP, TICKET_CREATE, TICKET_MODIFY,
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TICKET_VIEW, TIMELINE_VIEW, TRAC_ADMIN, WIKI_ADMIN, WIKI_CREATE,
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WIKI_DELETE, WIKI_MODIFY, WIKI_VIEW
You can see 'anonymous' has access to everything. Depending on your environment you may want to change that. Changing permissions is easy. Below we are removing the ability for anonymous users to create new tickets and instead switching the permissions to authenticated users. I highly recommend the Web Admin plugin which allows you to adjust permissions from within the Trac interface.
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sudo trac-admin /var/www/trac/projectname permission remove anonymous TICKET_CREATE
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sudo trac-admin /var/www/trac/projectname permission add authenticated TICKET_CREATE
Usually I set all the create and modify tasks to authenticated.
Next I backup and modify the trac.conf file. Here we are simply telling Apache how to access our new Trac. I'm using Kerberos here at work to authenticate against NT so again your configuration will probably be a bit different.
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cp /etc/httpd/conf.d/trac.conf trac.conf.date (trac.conf.20070122)
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vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/trac.conf
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<Location "/projectname">
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SetHandler mod_python
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SetEnv PYTHON_EGG_CACHE /var/lib/trac
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PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend
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PythonOption TracEnv /var/www/trac/projectname
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PythonOption TracUriRoot /projectname
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</Location>
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<Location "/projectname/login">
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AuthType Kerberos
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KrbMethodNegotiate Off
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KrbMethodK5Passwd On
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KrbAuthRealms MYDOMAIN.COM
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KrbSaveCredentials off
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KrbVerifyKDC off
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AuthName "nih"
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AuthGroupFile /var/www/svn_passwd
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Require group repos
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</Location>
Now we simply restart Apache and things should work! 
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sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart
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10 Comments
How would you handle one SVN repository with multiple projects folders? I am thinking of creating multiple Trac projects. Then pointing the Trac project to the base project SVN location. But it seems tedious for a developers to check their tickets across all projects.
I’m not sure if that’s possible? I need to setup a test environment for Trac so I can play around but just haven’t had any free time lately.
It might work if you had:
/svn/project1
/svn/project2
And then during the Trac setup pointed each Trac instance to the individual /project1 or /project2 folders.
For use at work here one of Trac’s biggest weaknesses is the ‘one Trac per project’ scheme. It’s just makes any kind of reporting, etc impossible.
Looks like this is somewhat supported:
http://trac.edgewall.org/ticket/2086 and
http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/.....orySupport
Looks like the trac site wiki has some info regarding Multi-Project Solution.
http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/.....veSolution
And some other pages regarding Multiple projects (in single db, single trac, multi trac). I’ll have do some reading tonight
And there are some other pages regarding Multiple projects (in single db, single trac enviroment, multi trac enviroments). I’ll have do some reading tonight
In my environment, I have 1 Svn repository with multiple projects and multiple Trac environments. Each Trac environment points to the Svn project directory containing its source code. Works exactly as you’d expect. In your trac.ini file, you’ll find a directive where you can provide your svn URI. Just point it where you need it to go and you’re off. You may need to resync if you’re changing an existing value.
I guess using Mylyn to manage tickets, you wouldn’t have to login to each Trac project instance. Also I found this. http://virtual-planner.palepurple.co.uk/ - collects tickets from multiple repositories/trac instances, to display in one interface for ease of management.
I’ve been trying to use Mylyn but just haven’t committed to it 100% - I’m not sure if I like how it integrates so tightly with Eclipse.
Interesting (too tightly integrated), I am excited to integrating Mylyn after getting Trac setup. Maybe it won’t be all I thought it would be. I am also considering trying http://tasktop.com/
Ohhhhhhhh I forgot about Tasktop. I remember seeing that in the past and it looked interesting. I probably just need to get more disciplined and force myself to use Mylyn more.