Talk:Trac

Questions
Would it help if we pre-installed clearsilver 0.9.13? That's available from Debian. -Dallas

Would it help to get people voting for these Suggestions? Are there other software installations that Dreamhost could provide to make this easier?
 * Install the Ruby and Python bindings for Subversion
 * Install Clearsilver
 * Allow one-click installation of Trac

Future Cleanup and Fixes
The evolution of the Trac guide has moved from being almost impossible to install correctly to one that gets most people to where they need to be.

When new versions come out, the installation should be updated and various package requirements and version requirements need to be updated. I propose that we only support 0.9.5 and above once version 0.11 comes out. If someone wants to install trac 0.8.4, then they should be on their own.

Santosj 07:56, 19 Feb 2006 (PST)

Working Trac Sites
Added to Main Trac Guide -- Santosj 14:46, 22 Feb 2006 (PST)

If you want to see mine in action, you can find it [Here]. And thanks for the compliment. It's been a while since i've been this productive --Fimion - Fabulous Geek 23:09, 20 Feb 2006 (PST)


 * Well, when I started working on this, you couldn't even get clearsilver to install correctly. It is nice to have Trac working after a month of trying, I was thinking it wasn't worth it. Mine is at here. Santosj 09:40, 21 Feb 2006 (PST)

Finally mine is working too after so many months. It is here. --Zack 10:18, 21 Feb 2006 (PST)

Here is one example of a project at dsource.org. --brad 09:56, 25 Feb 2006 (PST)

With all of these working sites I am beginning to feel like an idiot. I MUST be doing something wrong and somehting obvious to all of you. I can get everything installed ok but I am still getting 500 errors using fast-cgi. Is anyone actually using fast-cgi succesfully? Also I am a bit confused about where you should put your trac environemnt. Should it be in a web directory e.g. "/home/user/sub.domain.com" or should it be in a seperate folder outside the web viewable area e.g. "/home/user/project-trac"? Garethky 13:36, 27 Feb 2006 (PST)

Just remove the SetHandler fastcgi-script. I was having a serious problem with it and just removed it. If you have an extension that has fcgi then it will be run as FastCGI anyway. Just remove it but keep the DirectoryIndex. If you use the DBAuthPlugin, it is all you will need in the .htaccess file. The Set up your domain are all in the /home/user/sub.domain.com. I wasn't able to get the instructions to work with /home/user/project-trac but I was with ~/sub.domain.com.

Santosj 02:59, 28 Feb 2006 (PST)

Got mine working after 2 days, had to stray from the natmaster guide a little, but it's a major resource. Dont forget "killall trac.fcgi" when your chaning stuff in the beginnings because otherwise the changes wont take. Reconbot 12:15, 28 March 2007 (PDT)

Account Manager section
Download the plugin using command: wget http://trac-hacks.org/download/accountmanagerplugin.zip - produces 404

I used the following command - albeit I'm new to the unix shell: wget -P trac/install/acctmanager -r -np http://trac-hacks.org/svn/accountmanagerplugin/0.11/

Doesn't do exactly what I would want (preserves directory structure up to ../0.11/), but I can at least work with it. Dukebag

DB Authenticate and Account Manager
There is a log in form conflict between the two plugins, you can only use one of the other and I recommend using DB Authenticate since the only reason to use Account Manager is the registering feature. The only problem with the Account Manager registering feature is that you still need to add permissions using the trac-admin. If you have to do it for either one anyway, then I don't see a point.

Santosj 06:30, 26 Feb 2006 (PST)


 * Actually, if you add permissions to special user name "authenticated" then any authenticated person will have those permissions as well as the permissions for "anonymous". --Fimion - Fabulous Geek 08:24, 13 Mar 2006 (PST)

Thanks. Santosj 08:40, 21 Apr 2006 (PDT)

DB Authenticate Plugin
The SQLiteConnection error should be fixed, because I got it to work on my local machine after a recache / restart of Apache. See changeset 444 on trac-hacks.org. You can email me at brad at dsource dot org directly, we can get it working, and you can then post the howto back here.

brad 11:00, 25 Feb 2006 (PST)

FIXED

Revision 444 did fix the SQLiteConnection error and I'm looking at the form right now. I am having problems with my username being recognized but I believe it is more with that I didn't assign it to Trac-admin. I'm waiting for it before I complain and will test the plugin in my other environments. Totally awesome.

Santosj 11:24, 25 Feb 2006 (PST)

Update: Try the DbAuthPlugin again. I made some changes to solve the error below, checked them into SVN, and added examples on how to populate the database. brad 10:00, 25 Feb 2006 (PST)

I removed a few things from the discussion because how it read was that there was still an problem with DBAuthPlugin and there isn't. I guess I found it kind of funny, but a new user reading the discussion might get the wrong idea to not use the plugin when it works perfectly. Santosj 05:00, 1 Mar 2006 (PST)

Missing Something? OK So I did everything *exactly as listed on the article page* I am using version 0.9 and I dont get login or register links anywhere. I referenced the plugin wiki but there is much more there. What's the deal? How do i log in?

Eddiewebb 15:51, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

unspported file format error
I attempted to install trac a few weeks ago, but was getting errors due to some domain configuration issues. Anyway I just went through a clean install following the directions on this page and I am receiving an 'unsupported file format error'. You can see the full details here http://dev.hikerlogs.com/trac. Can anyone help me out? I am not sure what is causing this error. Thank you

--Civrot 00:31, 1 Mar 2006 (PST)


 * Well, my uneducated guess would be to add the .fcgi file format to the end. It is kind of strange because in your case it worked for the person who did it. I would try that and see if it blows up again. The errors are in the fcgi frontend, so from my limited knowledge on things I would have to say that is what threw the error. It is also my experience that errors are very rarely the cause of what they say they are and it might just not like you.


 * --Santosj 04:58, 1 Mar 2006 (PST)

I am actually using the fcgi extenstion. The default file for that dir is index.fcgi. I gues it dosen't like me. I'll keep poking. at it.

--Civrot 14:28, 1 Mar 2006 (PST)


 * Do you have FastCGI enabled in the domain Dreamhost Control Panel? I just always enabled it when I was going to use FastCGI and didn't really test what would happen if I didn't have it enabled. If you have it enabled already then I really can't help you. I would open a ticket with Dreamhost and see what they have to say after you checked the FastCGI for the domain.


 * --Santosj 05:40, 2 Mar 2006 (PST)

Help Needed
I got an answer in the clearsilver yahoo group.

''Ok, I finally took the time to release a new version of clearsilver which should fix this problem.

0.10.3 is now available from download page at www.clearsilver.net

It should work just by calling configure with --prefix=$HOME (or you can specify --with-python as well)

Brandon''

I'm going to test it now.--Marlun 06:30, 15 Mar 2006 (PST)


 * Cool, the last time I checked it was still at 0.10.2, which I had no trouble installing after installing Python first. If you can install it without having to install Python first then that would be great also. The Clearsilver Page could be updated with the updated 0.10.3 information.
 * I'm not sure that I'm going to install Clearsilver again since it was a huge hassle and I'm glad it finally works without blowing up. If you install it without installing Python, then please update the page.
 * Santosj 15:06, 16 Mar 2006 (PST)

I'm having some problems with the Subversion installation

I'm confused, after I've downloaded and extracted subversion I'm supposed to do this:

cd $HOME/lib/python2.3/site-packages mv libsvn libsvn.b0rk ln -s /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/libsvn ln -s /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/svn

however I do not have a libsvn in my site-packages directory. Have I missed something?

--Marlun 08:13, 15 Mar 2006 (PST)


 * You won't, because the links are symbolic meaning that there will only be a link to the folders. It is the same as having all of the files, but without wasting the space of actually copying them. -Santosj 15:06, 16 Mar 2006 (PST)

Complete Script to Download/Build/Install Trac, Python, Clearsilver, SQLite, PySQLite, SWIG, Subversion
I've attempted to follow the directions for installing Trac on dreamhost by following the directions listed at Python, Clearsilver, SQLite, PySQLite, SWIG, Subversion Installation pages. I decided that a complete installation script is in order.

See User:KurtStephens

--KurtStephens 23:43, 5 Apr 2006 (PDT)

The script is giving a 404 on http://www.archtree.net/DreamTracInstall/PySQLiteSetup-2.3.2-Dream.tar.gz. Any alternate sources for this?

--User:Mrockatansky

I've been told by 3 people that the script worked great for them, plus a few tweeks that I've added based on their feedback. Maybe we need a repository of scripts that install packages like this?

--KurtStephens 21:31, 1 Jun 2006 (PDT)

Making pretty URLs in Trac
I've got my Trac site working great by following the instructions on this Wiki, thanks! I would post a link but my project is private (for now at least, sorry)

I'm using fcgi, and HTTP for authentication. I made the RewriteRule commands in .htaccess as described on the Trac page, so my URL's look like:

How do I clean up the URL by removing the admin.fcgi part? I'd like the URL to look like. I know you can do this with your .htaccess file, but I'm terrible at that mod_rewrite stuff. Any suggestions?

Natec 12:04, 6 Apr 2006 (PDT)

Okay, here's what I did (it's a dirty litle hack, so sue me.) First, rather than naming the file "index.cgi" or whatever, I simply named it "trac". Then within my .htaccess, I made the file "trac" be run through fast-CGI.

Example .htaccess file:

DirectoryIndex trac  SetHandler fastcgi-script  Options +ExecCGI +FollowSymLinks

Like i said, it's a dirty little hack. :) --Fimion - Fabulous Geek 22:31, 6 Apr 2006 (PDT)


 * I have yet to get this hack to work. Santosj 07:28, 7 Apr 2006 (PDT)

I figured out a better way to do this and posted it on the wiki page. See Trac

Natec 11:15, 8 Apr 2006 (PDT)


 * Thou art God! Many thanks for the l33t Rewrite speak. Santosj 08:10, 9 Apr 2006 (PDT)

TRAC on melrose
I tried setting up trac and followed this wiki page step by step, to the letter ... however i couldn't get it right .. i tried more than once ... I contacted support, they said they will not install 3rd party softwares ... but they installed trac on the server !

so now all i have to do is set up the environment and the domain right ? i set up the environment right and it seems to be ok, however i can't seem to be able to set up the domain ...

i dunno much about cgi or how to use shell commands ... but i noticed that the index.fcgi has : exec /home/{USER}/share/trac/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi

and i dont have a share folder in my root ...

i tried changing that to:

exec /user/share/trac/cgi-bin/trac.cgi

which "should" work ... i mean it makes sense right ?

the page takes a loong time to load and it eventually displays a 500 eroor ...

SOMEBODY HELP !!!

No, there's a lot more that you need to install than just a trac environment and domain. Installation requires a custom build of Subversion, Clearsilver, and Python. the  directory refers to the installation path where you have built these things. Best advice is to check out the automatic install script that is posted on this Wiki. Natec 22:14, 16 Jul 2006 (PDT)

fcgi timeouts, but page loads anyway (after 120 sec)
Ok, I've had my Trac environment up and running for several months now. This problem has been there the whole time, and I'm just now trying to attack it. On some pages (namely the 'Timeline' page, some of the ticket report pages, and any wiki pages that have embedded images) when I go to the page it loads partially, then seems to hang for a good two minutes, and then finally finishes loading. I thought it was just slow at first, but looking into it more, I noticed that FastCGI is hanging and finally time-outs, at which point the rest of the page loads fine. What's strange is that there is no error or anything displayed wrong on the page, but in my server error logs, i do see this:

It seems that other people have had this problem, I found a ticket on the Trac site that describes my issue exactly. This ticket is solved using mod_fcgid, which obviously we can't use on Dreamhost.

Anybody else see this? Any ideas? This is so frustrating!

Natec 22:21, 16 Jul 2006 (PDT)

I recently changed our FastCGI configuration to try to resolve a user-reported problem with a python script. That configuration may also improve this situation for you. The new configuration may not have made it yet to your server so if you are still seeing this problem, let our support team know. Tell them to pass it to me.

Dallas 12:27, 21 Dec 2006 (PST)

Subversion/Trac help
I'd like to install Trac, but I also want to have my subversion repository available from http://svn.mysite.com. Is this actually possible, or must i choose one or the other?

If it is possible and someone can say how, I'd happily write it up for the main page.


 * My understanding is you can easily have both.Era 14:09, 25 September 2007 (PDT)

Problem with the natmaster guide for 0.10
I had to change the following from the clearsilver install steps to remove the path for python from the first line, as I don't have it installed and the guide says you don't need to do it. Reconbot 10:44, 28 March 2007 (PDT)

PYTHON_SITE=`/home/{username}/packages/bin/python -c \ "import sys; print [path for path in sys.path if \ 'site-packages' in path][0]"` \ ./configure --with-python=/home/{username}/packages/bin/python \ --prefix=$HOME/packages \ --disable-ruby --disable-java --disable-apache --disable-csharp --disable-perl

Change to PYTHON_SITE=`python -c \ "import sys; print [path for path in sys.path if \ path.find('site-packages') != -1][0]"` \ ./configure --with-python=/home/{username}/packages/bin/python \ --prefix=$HOME/packages \ --disable-ruby --disable-java --disable-apache --disable-csharp --disable-perl

and of course replace that one (username) with your user's name.

Subversion also gave me trouble asking for apr, I followed it's instructions and it still didn't work (getting the source for apr) I opted to follow the Subversion_Installation section on getting the binaries. And they work.

Prefer Genshi over Clearsilver?
With the latest Trac, Clearsilver is being replaced by their own template engine, Genshi. New installations would perhaps do well to use Genshi instead.

Tracd -- Too Heavy?
I tried to run Trac standalone using tracd, as described here: http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/TracStandalone

However, my tracd instance gets killed every few minutes. Looking at it in top(1) reveals some vaguely unattractive memory management problems -- or to my untrained eye, that's what it looks like; when I submit a form, it forks and both forks are double the original idle size, and growing, just like the load average. Or is this just some random unrelated glitch which causes Pringle to kill processes tonight? Has anybody else tried this?

(For the record, I'm also using the Darcs plugin instead of SVN. http://progetti.arstecnica.it/trac%2Bdarcs/wiki/DarcsPlugin)


 * Update: Looks like it was the friendly Dreamhost policy bot enforcing their policy. I got an email informing me that this is not allowed.  (Still wondering about the load on that host, but that's kind of moot now.  I'll try the FCGI method instead then.) Era 10:52, 28 September 2007 (PDT)

Vote for mod_python
As an alternative to (generic, but slightly sucky) fastCGI, you could run Python inside Apache using mod_python. There is a vote open for adding this feature to Dreamhost since some time already: https://panel.dreamhost.com/?tree=home.sugg&category=Software%20Installations&search=mod_python

See also Python for current up-to-date information about the situation.

Internal Server Error 500: Premature end of script headers: index.cgi
I have a new trac installation running on hummer.dreamhost.com within `tracd`, but trying to to run the same trac installation through the regular Apache environment results in the "premature end of script headers bug" failure.

How can I trace or debug this error? Is this a misconfiguration of Hummer?


 * I'm having the same problem on a different host. Based on the comments at Python_FastCGI I opened a support ticket and they got back to me saying they needed to raise my "softlimit".  Alas, that alone hasn't helped, but they're on the case now.  For the record, are you running this as "traditional" CGI or FastCGI (which is what the current instructions will set up)? Era 11:54, 17 October 2007 (PDT)

Try Plain CGI for Troubleshooting
For "500 Server Error" and other hard-to-debug problems, it might be a good idea to temporarily forego FastCGI and simply try to run a "traditional" CGI. For me, this provided some vital clues to solving my problems.

FastCGI adds a fair amount of complexity. Trac itself is actually pretty good about reporting errors, but apparently, if you are running under FastCGI, and there is a problem, those diagnostics will never be delivered all the way through to your browser. Also, there is, as ever, the hassle of making FastCGI be "not so fast" when you want to restart everything from scratch after you've changed a setting or something.

So for the time being, remove the FastCGI stuff from your .htaccess (perhaps for good; as long as your script has a .fcgi extension, none of that is necessary anyway), copy the index.fcgi script to index.cgi and edit it to invoke trac.cgi instead of trac.fcgi, and see if you manage to get any new clues.

I also found it useful to collect all my Trac environment settings in the index.fcgi file, so they don't pollute my interactive runtime environment, and are sure to be loaded correctly for Trac.

TRAC_ENV=${HOME}/trac_sites/trac export TRAC_ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${HOME}/packages/lib export LD_LIBRARY_PATH PYTHONPATH=${HOME}/packages/lib/python2.3/site-packages export PYTHONPATH PATH=$PATH:${HOME}/bin export PATH exec ${HOME}/packages/share/trac/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi
 * 1) !/bin/sh
 * 2) See http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Trac
 * 1) For darcs
 * 1) Edit this to point to .../cgi-bin/trac.cgi for troubleshooting

Hope this can help somebody. Era 15:18, 17 October 2007 (PDT)

It helped me, PYTHONPATH defined right in the script solved my problem. I'm running an Easy Install set up along side a manual 1.0 setup, 1.0 was not working.--Jceaser (talk) 16:18, 31 May 2014 (PDT)

Note from Dreamhost
Don't remove the advanced warning.

One Click install on secure site needs trac.ini fix
When I used One Click to install Trac on a domain with only secure hosting, Trac did not work correctly until I edited DOMAINDIR/bugs/conf/trac.ini and changed "http" to "https" in this line:

htdocs_location = http://MYDOMAIN.com//MYTRACDIR/htdocs

Without this change, the Trac page was displayed with no styles and there were JavaScript errors (since the separate CSS and script documents couldn't be found). Jhmark 17:14, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

One Click install via SVN repo creation doesn't add user security
Could someone clarify which instructions can be used to establish an admin if you have used the one-click install via SVN repo creation? When I go to "login" it says, "Authentication information not available. Please refer to the installation documentation." --Rehevkor5 21:47, 26 January 2012 (PST)