Trac on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4

WARNING: up2date command installs Trac 0.10… These instructions are valid for both 0.9 and 0.10 WARNING: Trac .10 will not function on RHEL x86_64 due to ClearSilver dependencies. Consider .11 instead.

(Or TracOnRhel4WithoutYum)

Installing Trac Software and Dependencies

Installing Trac On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (or rebuilds like CentOS4 or ScientificLinux4) is easy with the RPMforge packages from Dag and Dries. If you are not familiar with using these packages, you probably want to read ​http://rpmforge.net/user/faq/ first. If you are using Red Hat's up2date, you will need to download the rpmforge-release at ​http://rpmforge.net/user/packages/rpmforge-release/ and add the following lines to your /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources file:

# Name: RPMforge RPM Repository for Red Hat Enterprise 4 - i386
yum rpmforge http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el4/en/i386/dag/
}}}  (Broken: RHEL4 uses up2date instead)

SELinux note: Please read TracWithSeLinux if you're using SELinux on RHEL4. Basically the default SELinux configuration only allows Apache to read certain directories, so you may need to add trac to the Apache context (`man chcon`) or turn off SELinux (`man setenforce`). For more information on SELinux, see http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq/. To turn off SELinux edit the /etc/selinux/config file and set SELINUX=disabled 

After configuring up2date to use the RPMforge repository, run the following command in a terminal window:

{{{
  $ up2date --nosig -i trac
}}}

up2date will take care of all dependencies on which the Trac package depends (including clearsilver, guile, neon, perl-URI, python-clearsilver, python-sqlite, sqlite, subversion, and swig packages) and will fetch and install them for you automatically. For a full list of what it requires, see the RPM spec file at http://dag.wieers.com/packages/trac/trac.spec 

== Configure Subversion ==

Before we can create a new trac environment we must first have a working subversion repository if we are going to get the full use out of trac. Create a subversion repository if you don't already have one, for example in ''/opt/subversion/repos'':

{{{
 $ mkdir -p /opt/subversion/repos
 $ svnadmin create  --fs-type fsfs /opt/subversion/repos
}}}

Next you need to decide where to store your trac project and create the directory, for example in the new directory ''/opt/trac/projectA'':

{{{
 $ mkdir -p  /opt/trac
}}}

== Creating an Environment ==

A new Trac environment is created using [wiki:TracAdmin trac-admin]:
{{{
$ trac-admin /opt/trac/projectA initenv
}}}

Trac will first ask a few questions about your environment in order to initalize and prepare the project database.

 Please enter the name of your project.
 This name will be used in page titles and descriptions.
{{{
Project Name [My Project]> projectA
}}}
 Please specify the connection string for the database to use.
 By default, a local SQLite database is created in the environment 
 directory. It is also possible to use an already existing 
 PostgreSQL database (check the Trac documentation for the exact 
 connection string syntax).
{{{
Database connection string [sqlite:db/trac.db]> ''Enter to accept Default''
}}}
 Please specify the absolute path to the project Subversion repository.
 Repository must be local, and trac-admin requires read+write
 permission to initialize the Trac database.
{{{
Path to repository [/var/svn/test]> /opt/subversion/repos
}}}
 Please enter location of Trac page templates.
 Default is the location of the site-wide templates installed with Trac.
{{{
Templates directory [/usr/share/trac/templates]> ''Enter to accept Default'' 
}}}

''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 Trac is eventually using, although Trac will only require read access as long as you're not using the BDB file system.''

== Directory Structure of Trac Environment ==

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 [wiki:TracPlugins 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.
 * `wiki-macros` - Environment-specific [wiki:WikiMacros Wiki macros].

''Note: don't confuse a Trac environment directory with the Source Code Repository directory. It happens that the above structure is loosely modelled after the Subversion repository directory structure, but they are not and must not be located at the same place.''

== Apache Configuration ==

In this example we are using mod_python to run the trac front end given its speed advantages over cgi and fastcgi. But first we need to install mod_python:
{{{
$ up2date -i mod_python
}}}
Next, you need to edit the file ''/etc/httpd/conf.d/trac.conf'' to point to your new project environment, as in this example (using mod_python):

{{{
 <Location /projectA>
   SetHandler mod_python
   PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend
   PythonOption TracEnv /opt/trac/projectA
   PythonOption TracUriRoot /projectA
 </Location>
 <Location "/projectA/login">
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "trac"
   AuthUserFile /opt/trac/projectA.htpasswd
   Require valid-user
 </Location>
}}}

The example above assumes you have a trac project environment setup in ''/opt/trac/projectA/'' directory and a htpasswd file in /opt/trac/projectA.htpasswd for authentication purposes (see also wiki:TracModPython). 

We also need to give the apache user ownership of the trac environment and subversion repository
{{{
 $ chown -R root:webserv /opt/trac
 $ chown -R root:webserv /opt/subversion/repos
}}}

=== Permission Denied Errors ===
If you are getting a permission denied error saying that trac requires read _and_ write access to the project database file, you might have an SELinux environment. If SELinux is enabled, then you will have to run the following command as root.
{{{
 $ chcon -R system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_script_rw_t /opt/trac
 $ chcon -R system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_script_rw_t /opt/subversion/repos
}}}

If you aren't running SELinux, one possibility is apache needs ownership:
{{{
 $ chown -R webserv:webserv /opt/trac
 $ chown -R webserv:webserv /opt/subversion/repos
}}}
(On CentOS installations, {{{webserv}}} should be replaced with {{{apache}}})


You will need to restart apache after editing trac.conf:
{{{
  $ /sbin/service httpd restart
}}}

Verify your Trac installation by pointing your browser at the correct URL for your Trac server.

If you're installing any trac plugins, keep in mind that RHEL4 ships with Python 2.3. You can also find a python-setuptools rpm at http://install.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/yum/CLS/CLSTools.EL4/repodata/index.html