How To Solutions

How To Install Trac on Windows

Posted on the September 24th, 2008 under Installs by admin

Trac is front end to subversion with integrated wiki for developers. Use this How To article to help you install Trac on a Windows computer that isn’t running Apache. The guide assumes you have a working Subversion repository and are using the TortoiseSVN shell on client PC’s.

Introduction

Firstly let me say Trac is a brilliant bit of software. It is basically a friendly front end to subversion which is a version control system. Trac allows you to use its in-built tracd software so you can view Subversion changes through a browser. Working with developers, this lets you track changes to code easily as well as support development goals through Trac’s project management tools.

This How To guide is by no means a replacement for the Trac documentation. The Trac site and the support provided by their developers is really very good. However I ran into a number of problems when installing the software on a standalone Windows server that wasn’t running Apache.

Installation Files

• Python 2.5
• Trac
  
• SVN Python
  
• pysqlite
• Genshi
• TortoiseSVN
• ez_setup.py

Installing the Software

1. OK so let’s assume you have a working repository which we will say is located at E:\repos and a folder with all of your code located at E:\code.

2. Let’s install Python - Double click the python-2.5.2.msi file and select ‘Install for all users’. Click Next and then Next again (change the location of the Python install if you wish). Click Next once more and Python will start installing. Click Finish and that’s Python installed.

3. Now let’s install the Python SVN file (”svn-python” etc) - Double click the file and then click Next, Next again and Next once more. The installation will run and click the Finish button when prompted.

4. Then we install Python SQLite - Double click the file and then click Next, Next again and Next once more. The installation will run and click the Finish button when prompted.

5. Trac needs to be installed now - Double click the Trac exe and then click Next, Next again and Next once more. The installation will run and click the Finish button when prompted.

6. Lastly we need to install Genshi - Double click the Genshi file and then click Next, Next again and Next once more. The installation will run and click the Finish button when prompted.

Getting Trac Running

1. Create a folder called tracproject or something similar - I’d recommend putting it in the same directory as your repository.

2. Get your ez_setup.py file and move it into C:\Python25\Scripts folder(or wherever your Python install is located). Bring up a command prompt (Click on Start > Run and type ‘cmd‘). Enter the following making sure you hit Enter after each of the four lines.

cd c:\ cd pyth* cd scr* ez_setup.py

3. This will bring up about 10 lines of code and then leave the command prompt in the same directory. Now type the following and hit Enter.

trac-admin E:\project initenv

This will install Trac to the E:\project directory. Now the CMD window will prompt you to input four pieces of information. Look at what I used below to indicate what you should use.

Project Name [My Project] - I used “mycode” Database connection string [sqlite:db/trac.db]> Leave blank by hitting Enter Repository type [svn]> Leave blank by htting Enter Path to Repository [/path/to/repos]> E:\repos

The CMD window will install Trac based on the existing repository. The more existing revisions you have in the repository the longer this process will take, it’s indexing each change you’ve ever made. Once the install is complete the last line should say “Congratulations!” but don’t close the cmd window!. So Trac is now installed but you’re not done yet. It must be configured correctly to get the most out of it’s use.

4. To easily handle accounts in Trac I would 100% recommend installing the Account Manager Plugin available from Trac Hacks (a handy site with lots of Trac plugins) - let’s do this now. In the same cmd window (which should still be in C:\Python25\Scripts) type the following and hit Enter.

easy_install http://trac-hacks.org/svn/accountmanagerplugin/trunk

This will bring up about 12 lines of code with the last line starting “Finished processing dependencies”.

5. In Windows open up the E:\project folder and go into the conf sub-directory. There’s a file called trac.ini - open it in an editor like Notepad. You need to copy the following lines below and paste them into Notepad above the [header_logo] section.

[components] acct_mgr.admin.accountmanageradminpage = enabled acct_mgr.api.accountmanager = enabled acct_mgr.db.sessionstore = enabled acct_mgr.htfile.htdigeststore = enabled acct_mgr.pwhash.htdigesthashmethod = enabled acct_mgr.web_ui.accountmodule = enabled acct_mgr.web_ui.loginmodule = enabled acct_mgr.web_ui.registrationmodule = enabled trac.web.auth.loginmodule = disabled

Once that’s been pasted in save the ini file and close Notepad. In explorer go up a level to E:\project and create a new text file called passwd.txt - leave the file blank.

6. Lastly let’s give all anonymous users (those who aren’t logged in) admin access. In the same CMD window type the following and hit Enter.

trac-admin E:\project permission add anonymous TRAC_ADMIN

Note this will not return any lines. We will remove the admin access later once you, the real admin, have created your account. And with that we can start Tracd. In CMD type the following and hit Enter.

tracd –p 8000 E:\project

7. Open up your favourite browser and paste this URL: http://localhost:8000/. You should see a link to the name you gave your project, such as mycode. Click on that and there you have Tracd - the front end of the Trac software.

8.In the top right there’s a tab called Admin - click on it. On the menu on the right click on Configuration and when the page loads select HtDigestStore where the filename is E:\project\passwd.txt and the realm is “trac“.

9. Below Configuration is Users - click on it. Create yourself an admin account. Now using the menu go to Permissions. On the right of that page you will see the Grant Permission section. Use the subject field for the username you gave yourself on the Users page and select the TRAC_ADMIN as Action. Click Add and you will see your username in the middle column of the page with TRAC_ADMIN next to it. For the subject anonymous click on the TRAC_ADMIN so it’s ticked and then click on the Remove selected items button.

10. From now on you will need to use that Admin account to Login and make changes to the Trac environment. By default anonymous users can still view all of the Tracd menu’s to see changes to the repository and view tickets.

I hope this How To guide has helped you get Trac running on your systems. Please feel free to make comments/suggestions/improvement.