Installing Trac as CGI

#!div class=important
 ''Please note that using Trac via CGI is the slowest deployment method available. It is slower than [wiki:TracModWSGI mod_wsgi], [TracModPython mod_python], [TracFastCgi FastCGI] and even [trac:TracOnWindowsIisAjp IIS/AJP] on Windows.''

CGI script is the entrypoint that web-server calls when a web-request to an application is made. The trac.cgi script can be created using the trac-admin <env> deploy <dir> command which automatically substitutes the required paths, see TracInstall#cgi-bin. Make sure the script is executable by your web server.

Apache web-server configuration

In Apache there are two ways to run Trac as CGI:

1. Use a ScriptAlias directive that maps a URL to the trac.cgi script (recommended)

1. Copy the trac.cgi file into the directory for CGI executables used by your web server (commonly named cgi-bin). You can also create a symbolic link, but in that case make sure that the FollowSymLinks option is enabled for the cgi-bin directory.

To make Trac available at http://yourhost.example.org/trac add ScriptAlias directive to Apache configuration file, changing trac.cgi path to match your installation:

ScriptAlias /trac /path/to/www/trac/cgi-bin/trac.cgi

''Note that this directive requires that the mod_alias module is enabled.''

If you're using Trac with a single project you need to set its location using the TRAC_ENV environment variable:

<Location "/trac">
  SetEnv TRAC_ENV "/path/to/projectenv"
</Location>

Or to use multiple projects you can specify their common parent directory using the TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR variable:

<Location "/trac">
  SetEnv TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR "/path/to/project/parent/dir"
</Location>

''Note that the SetEnv directive requires that the mod_env module is enabled.''

An alternative to SetEnv is editing TRAC_ENV or TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR in trac.cgi:

    os.environ['TRAC_ENV'] = "/path/to/projectenv"

    os.environ['TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR'] = "/path/to/parent/dir"

If you are using the Apache suEXEC feature please see ApacheSuexec.

On some systems, you ''may'' need to edit the shebang line in the trac.cgi file to point to your real Python installation path. On a Windows system you may need to configure Windows to know how to execute a .cgi file (Explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types -> CGI).

Python Egg Cache

The [TracInstall#egg-cache egg-cache] can be configured using an os.environ statement in trac.cgi, as shown above.

To do the same from the Apache configuration, use the SetEnv directive:

SetEnv PYTHON_EGG_CACHE /path/to/dir

Put this directive next to where you set the path to the Trac environment, i.e. in the same <Location> block.

 <Location /trac>
   SetEnv TRAC_ENV /path/to/projenv
   SetEnv PYTHON_EGG_CACHE /path/to/dir
 </Location>

Using WSGI

You can run a WSGI handler under CGI. You can write your own application function, or use the deployed trac.wsgi's application.

Mapping Static Resources

See TracInstall#MappingStaticResources.

Adding Authentication

See TracInstall#ConfiguringAuthentication.