Trac FAQ

Here you can find the answer to some of the most frequently asked questions about Trac. If you a question not answered by this page you can add your question by clicking on the "Edit this page" link at the bottom of this page.

Contents

• 1   Installing and Running Trac
  • 1.1   What operating systems does Trac run on?
  • 1.2   What are the dependencies of Trac?
  • 1.3   Can I manage multiple projects from a single installation of Trac?
• 2   Wiki
  • 2.1   What is a "Wiki"?
  • 2.2   Did you copy the previous question from the MoinMoin FAQ
  • 2.3   Could the Wiki perhaps get a RecentChanges page, showing the changed pages in anti-chronological order?
  • 2.4   I get the following error message when editing a wiki page with Trac 0.6.1:
  • 2.5   Does Trac support Unicode/UTF-8 or any other encodings?
  • 2.6   Can I directly add questions to this Wiki FAQ?
  • 2.7   But then how do we control spammers and malicious contributors?
• 3   Browser
  • 3.1   On Windows, why does Trac not display diffs?
  • 3.2   Does Trac support syntax coloring/highlighting of source code files?
• 4   Tickets
  • 4.1   Is there any way to remove tickets ?
• 5   Reports
  • 5.1   Is there any way to remove reports?
• 6   Development
  • 6.1   How can i contribute to the project?
  • 6.2   Are there any provisions for I18N and L10N? Is it enough with translating the templates?
• 7   Miscellaneous
  • 7.1   What is a typical use-case for trac? Why/when would I want to use it?
  • 7.2   How do I create or change a milestone with an associated date?

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1   Installing and Running Trac

1.1   What operating systems does Trac run on?

Trac will run on any system supported by Python and the depending modules. Today we are aware of people running Trac on various Linux distributions, Mac OS X, NetBSD and MS Windows.

See also: TracOnNetBsd , TracOnOsx, TracOnMandrakelinux, TracOnGentoo, TracOnDebian

1.2   What are the dependencies of Trac?

Trac depends on the following software: Subversion w/Python bindings, Clearsilver, SQLite w/Python bindings. Syntax coloring requires GNU Enscript and/or SilverCity.

See also: TracInstall, TracSyntaxColoring.

1.3   Can I manage multiple projects from a single installation of Trac?

(or do I have to setup a different directory for each one?)

Only one installation is required, then for each project create an Environment (using trac-admin <fooproj> initdb). They will be separate projects, all handled by the same installation of Trac.

Note: Right now there is no support for sharing information between projects.

The rationale for this is that the scope of Trac (1.0) is to manage a single project, and do it well. Support for larger multi-project management adds alot of complexity, but is planned for post-1.0 development, probably as a separate framework around Trac.

2   Wiki

2.1   What is a "Wiki"?

The term Wiki is a shortened form of WikiWikiWeb. A Wiki is a database of pages that can be collaboratively edited using a web browser.

See also: TracWiki

2.2   Did you copy the previous question from the MoinMoin FAQ

Why yes, thanks for asking.

2.3   Could the Wiki perhaps get a RecentChanges page, showing the changed pages in anti-chronological order?

The timeline contains information about all the changes to Trac content. By deselecting the view ticket changes and view repository checkins boxes you can view only the Wiki changes.

2.4   I get the following error message when editing a wiki page with Trac 0.6.1:

columns name, version are not unique

SQLite version 2.8.13 has a bug in the max() function. Either downgrade/upgrade sqlite or replace trac/Wiki.py with this file: Wiki.py

2.5   Does Trac support Unicode/UTF-8 or any other encodings?

Yes, Trac uses UTF-8 internally for all text. See TracUnicode for a detailed description.

2.6   Can I directly add questions to this Wiki FAQ?

Yes, I can! Just click Edit this page at the bottom of the page.

2.7   But then how do we control spammers and malicious contributors?

I guess you would get an answer rapidly if you added a malicious contribution, and you just might get a bruise.

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3   Browser

3.1   On Windows, why does Trac not display diffs?

Early versions of Subversion used an (external) diff command. On UNIX-like systems, diff is usually installed already, so this wasn't an issue there. Installing diffutils should solve the problem, but a better solution would be to upgrade to the latest Subversion, which now uses an internal diff library.

3.2   Does Trac support syntax coloring/highlighting of source code files?

Yes, using several methods. See TracSyntaxColoring for details.

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4   Tickets

4.1   Is there any way to remove tickets ?

You have to go through the db file in order to remove a ticket. No web interface is available for the moment (but there is a ticket:298 regarding it).

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5   Reports

5.1   Is there any way to remove reports?

Yes, if you have the proper permissions, you should be able to delete a report simply by viewing it and clicking delete.

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6   Development

6.1   How can i contribute to the project?

There are several ways to contribute, including submitting patches, sending feedback and reporting bugs. For details, see HowToContribute.

6.2   Are there any provisions for I18N and L10N? Is it enough with translating the templates?

?

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7   Miscellaneous

7.1   What is a typical use-case for trac? Why/when would I want to use it?

Note: in the gist, this boils down to 'what is trac?' and should rather be the first question IMHO.

7.2   How do I create or change a milestone with an associated date?

Using trac-admin, specifically the milestone time or milestone add command. The input format for the date is rather limited still, and should be a string like this: 'Jun 3, 2003'. Note the string must be quoted for proper parsing. Example:

trac-admin myprojenv milestone add anniversary 'Jun 3, 2003'

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See also: TracGuide, TitleIndex