Trac with FastCGI

Since version 0.9, Trac supports being run through the FastCGI interface. Like mod_python, this allows Trac to remain resident, and is faster than external CGI interfaces which must start a new process for each request. However, unlike mod_python, it is able to support SuEXEC. Additionally, it is supported by much wider variety of web servers.

Simple Apache configuration

# Enable fastcgi for .fcgi files
# (If you're using a distro package for mod_fcgi, something like
# this is probably already present)
<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
   AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi
   FastCgiIpcDir /var/lib/apache2/fastcgi 
</IfModule>
LoadModule fastcgi_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_fastcgi.so

You can either setup the TRAC_ENV as an overall default:

FastCgiConfig -initial-env TRAC_ENV=/path/to/env/trac

Or you can serve multiple Trac projects in a directory like:

FastCgiConfig -initial-env TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR=/parent/dir/of/projects

Configure ScriptAlias or similar options as described in TracCgi, but calling trac.fcgi instead of trac.cgi.

Simple Lighttpd Configuration

The FastCGI front-end was developed primarily for use with alternative webservers, such as lighttpd.

lighttpd is a secure, fast, compliant and very flexible web-server that has been optimized for high-performance environments. It has a very low memory footprint compared to other web servers and takes care of CPU load.

For using trac.fcgi with lighttpd add the following to your lighttpd.conf:

fastcgi.server = ("/trac" =>
                   ("trac" =>
                     ("socket" => "/tmp/trac-fastcgi.sock",
                      "bin-path" => "/path/to/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi",
                      "check-local" => "disable",
                      "bin-environment" =>
                        ("TRAC_ENV" => "/path/to/projenv")
                     )
                   )
                 )

Note that you will need to add a new entry to fastcgi.server for each separate Trac instance that you wish to run. Alternatively, you may use the TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR variable instead of TRAC_ENV as described above.

Other important information like this updated TracInstall page, and this are useful for non-fastcgi specific installation aspects.

Relaunch lighttpd, and browse to http://yourhost.example.org/trac to access Trac.

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See also TracCgi, TracModPython, TracInstall, TracGuide