= Trac with FastCGI

[[TracGuideToc]]
[[PageOutline(2-5, Contents, floated)]]

[http://www.fastcgi.com/ FastCGI] interface allows Trac to remain resident much like with [wiki:TracModPython mod_python] or [wiki:TracModWSGI mod_wsgi]. It is faster than external CGI interfaces which must start a new process for each request. Additionally, it is supported by a much wider variety of web servers.

Note that unlike mod_python, FastCGI supports [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/suexec.html Apache SuEXEC], ie run with different permissions than the web server runs with. `mod_wsgi` supports the `WSGIDaemonProcess` with user / group parameters to achieve the same effect.

'''Note for Windows:''' Trac's FastCGI does not run under Windows, as Windows does not implement `Socket.fromfd`, which is used by `_fcgi.py`. If you want to connect to IIS, you may want to try [trac:TracOnWindowsIisAjp AJP]/[trac:TracOnWindowsIisAjp ISAPI].

== Apache configuration

There are two FastCGI modules commonly available for Apache: `mod_fastcgi` and `mod_fcgid` (preferred). The latter is more up-to-date.

The following sections focus on the FCGI specific setup, see also [wiki:TracModWSGI#ConfiguringAuthentication] for configuring the authentication in Apache.

Regardless of which cgi module is used, be sure the web server has executable permissions on the cgi-bin folder. While FastCGI will throw specific permissions errors, mod_fcgid will throw an ambiguous error if this has not been done: `Connection reset by peer: mod_fcgid: error reading data from FastCGI server`.

=== Set up with `mod_fastcgi`

`mod_fastcgi` uses `FastCgiIpcDir` and `FastCgiConfig` directives that should be added to an appropriate Apache configuration file:
{{{#!apache
# 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
}}}

Setting `FastCgiIpcDir` is optional if the default is suitable. Note that the `LoadModule` line must be after the `IfModule` group.

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

Add the following to the Apache configuration file (below the `FastCgiIpcDir` line) if you intend to set up the `TRAC_ENV` as an overall default:
{{{#!apache
FastCgiConfig -initial-env TRAC_ENV=/path/to/env/trac
}}}

Alternatively, you can serve multiple Trac projects in a directory by adding this:
{{{#!apache
FastCgiConfig -initial-env TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR=/parent/dir/of/projects
}}}

You can also specify the `PYTHON_EGG_CACHE` environment variable using a second `-initial-env` directive:
{{{#!apache
FastCgiConfig -initial-env TRAC_ENV=/var/lib/trac \ 
    -initial-env PYTHON_EGG_CACHE=/var/lib/trac/plugin-cache
}}}

=== Set up with `mod_fcgid`

Configure `ScriptAlias` (see TracCgi for details), but call `trac.fcgi` instead of `trac.cgi`:
{{{#!apache
ScriptAlias /trac /path/to/www/trac/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi/
}}}

Note the slash at the end.

To set up Trac environment for `mod_fcgid` it is necessary to use `DefaultInitEnv` directive. It cannot be used in `Directory` or `Location` context, so if you need to support multiple projects, try the alternative environment setup below:
{{{#!apache
DefaultInitEnv TRAC_ENV /path/to/env/trac/
}}}

=== Alternative environment setup

A better method to specify the path to the Trac environment is to embed the path into `trac.fcgi` script itself. That doesn't require configuration of the server environment variables, works for both [trac:FastCgi] modules as well as for [http://www.lighttpd.net/ lighttpd] and CGI:
{{{#!python
import os
os.environ['TRAC_ENV'] = "/path/to/projectenv"
}}}

or:
{{{#!python
import os
os.environ['TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR'] = "/path/to/project/parent/dir"
}}}

With this method different projects can be supported by using different `.fcgi` scripts with different `ScriptAliases`.

See [https://coderanger.net/~coderanger/httpd/fcgi_example.conf this fcgid example config] which uses a !ScriptAlias directive with trac.fcgi with a trailing / like this:
{{{#!apache
ScriptAlias / /srv/tracsite/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi/
}}}

== Cherokee Configuration

Configuring [http://cherokee-project.com/ Cherokee] with Trac is straightforward, if you spawn Trac as an SCGI process. You can either start it manually, or better yet, automatically by letting Cherokee spawn the server whenever it is down.

First set up an information source in cherokee-admin with a local interpreter:

{{{
Host:
localhost:4433

Interpreter:
/usr/bin/tracd —single-env —daemonize —protocol=scgi —hostname=localhost —port=4433 /path/to/project/
}}}

If the port was not reachable, the interpreter command would be launched. Note that, in the definition of the information source, you will have to manually launch the spawner if you use a ''Remote host'' as ''Information source'' instead of a ''Local interpreter''.

After doing this, we will just have to create a new rule managed by the SCGI handler to access Trac. It can be created in a new virtual server, trac.example.net for instance, and will only need two rules. The '''default''' one will use the SCGI handler associated to the previously created information source.
The second rule will be there to serve the few static files needed to correctly display the Trac interface. Create it as ''Directory rule'' for ''/common'' and just set it to the ''Static files'' handler and with a ''Document root'' that points to the appropriate files: ''$TRAC_LOCAL/htdocs/'' (where $TRAC_LOCAL is a directory defined by the user or the system administrator to place local Trac resources).

'''Note:''' If the tracd process fails to start up, and Cherokee displays a 503 error page, you might be missing the [http://trac.saddi.com/flup python-flup] package ([trac:#9903]). Python-flup is a dependency which provides Trac with SCGI capability. You can install it on Debian based systems with:
{{{#!sh
sudo apt-get install python-flup
}}}

== Lighttpd Configuration

The FastCGI front-end was developed primarily for use with alternative webservers, such as [http://www.lighttpd.net/ 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`(prior to 0.11) / fcgi_frontend.py (0.11) with Lighttpd add the following to your lighttpd.conf:
{{{
#var.fcgi_binary="/usr/bin/python /path/to/fcgi_frontend.py" # 0.11 if installed with easy_setup, it is inside the egg directory
var.fcgi_binary="/path/to/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi" # 0.10 name of prior fcgi executable
fastcgi.server = ("/trac" =>
   
                   ("trac" =>
                     ("socket" => "/tmp/trac-fastcgi.sock",
                      "bin-path" => fcgi_binary,
                      "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, and you may set one of the two in `trac.fcgi` instead of in `lighttpd.conf` using `bin-environment`, as in the section above on Apache configuration.

Note that Lighttpd has a bug related to 'SCRIPT_NAME' and 'PATH_INFO' when the uri of fastcgi.server is '/' instead of '/trac' in this example (see [trac:#2418]). This is fixed in Lighttpd 1.5, and under Lighttpd 1.4.23 or later the workaround is to add `"fix-root-scriptname" => "enable"` as a parameter of fastcgi.server.

For using two projects with lighttpd add the following to your `lighttpd.conf`:
{{{
fastcgi.server = ("/first" =>
                   ("first" =>
                    ("socket" => "/tmp/trac-fastcgi-first.sock",
                     "bin-path" => fcgi_binary,
                     "check-local" => "disable",
                     "bin-environment" =>
                       ("TRAC_ENV" => "/path/to/projenv-first")
                    )
                  ),
                  "/second" =>
                    ("second" =>
                    ("socket" => "/tmp/trac-fastcgi-second.sock",
                     "bin-path" => fcgi_binary,
                     "check-local" => "disable",
                     "bin-environment" =>
                       ("TRAC_ENV" => "/path/to/projenv-second")
                    )
                  )
                )
}}}

Note that the field values are different. If you prefer setting the environment variables in the `.fcgi` scripts, then copy/rename `trac.fcgi`, eg to `first.fcgi` and `second.fcgi`, and reference them in the above settings.
Note that the above will result in different processes in any event, even if both are running from the same `trac.fcgi` script.

{{{#!div class=important
'''Note:''' The order in which the server.modules are loaded is very important: if mod_auth is not loaded '''before''' mod_fastcgi, then the server will fail to authenticate the user.
}}}

For authentication you should enable mod_auth in lighttpd.conf 'server.modules', select auth.backend and auth rules:
{{{
server.modules              = (
...
  "mod_auth",
...
)

auth.backend               = "htpasswd"

# Separated password files for each project
# See "Conditional Configuration" in
# http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/file/branches/lighttpd-merge-1.4.x/doc/configuration.txt

$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/first/" {
  auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = "/path/to/projenv-first/htpasswd.htaccess"
}
$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/second/" {
  auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = "/path/to/projenv-second/htpasswd.htaccess"
}

# Enable auth on trac URLs, see
# http://trac.lighttpd.net/trac/file/branches/lighttpd-merge-1.4.x/doc/authentication.txt

auth.require = ("/first/login" =>
                ("method"  => "basic",
                 "realm"   => "First project",
                 "require" => "valid-user"
                ),
                "/second/login" =>
                ("method"  => "basic",
                 "realm"   => "Second project",
                 "require" => "valid-user"
                )
               )

}}}

Note that Lighttpd (v1.4.3) stops if the password file doesn't exist.

Note that Lighttpd doesn't support 'valid-user' in versions prior to 1.3.16.

Conditional configuration is also useful for mapping static resources, ie serving out images and CSS directly instead of through FastCGI:
{{{
# Aliasing functionality is needed
server.modules += ("mod_alias")

# Set up an alias for the static resources
alias.url = ("/trac/chrome/common" => "/usr/share/trac/htdocs")

# Use negative lookahead, matching all requests that ask for any resource under /trac, EXCEPT in
# /trac/chrome/common, and use FastCGI for those
$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/trac(?!/chrome/common)" {
# Even if you have other fastcgi.server declarations for applications other than Trac, do NOT use += here
fastcgi.server = ("/trac" =>
                   ("trac" =>
                     ("socket" => "/tmp/trac-fastcgi.sock",
                      "bin-path" => fcgi_binary,
                      "check-local" => "disable",
                      "bin-environment" =>
                        ("TRAC_ENV" => "/path/to/projenv")
                     )
                   )
                 )
}
}}}

The technique can be easily adapted for use with multiple projects by creating aliases for each of them, and wrapping the fastcgi.server declarations inside conditional configuration blocks.

Also there is another way to handle multiple projects and it uses `TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR` instead of `TRAC_ENV` as well as global authentication:
{{{
#  This is for handling multiple projects
  alias.url       = ( "/trac/" => "/path/to/trac/htdocs/" )

  fastcgi.server += ("/projects"  =>
                      ("trac" =>
                        (
                          "socket" => "/tmp/trac.sock",
                          "bin-path" => fcgi_binary,
                          "check-local" => "disable",
                          "bin-environment" =>
                            ("TRAC_ENV_PARENT_DIR" => "/path/to/parent/dir/of/projects/" )
                        )
                      )
                    )
#And here starts the global auth configuration
  auth.backend = "htpasswd"
  auth.backend.htpasswd.userfile = "/path/to/unique/htpassword/file/trac.htpasswd"
  $HTTP["url"] =~ "^/projects/.*/login$" {
    auth.require = ("/" =>
                     (
                       "method"  => "basic",
                       "realm"   => "trac",
                       "require" => "valid-user"
                     )
                   )
  }
}}}

Changing date/time format also supported by lighttpd over environment variable LC_TIME:
{{{
fastcgi.server = ("/trac" =>
                   ("trac" =>
                     ("socket" => "/tmp/trac-fastcgi.sock",
                      "bin-path" => fcgi_binary,
                      "check-local" => "disable",
                      "bin-environment" =>
                        ("TRAC_ENV" => "/path/to/projenv",
                        "LC_TIME" => "ru_RU")
                     )
                   )
                 )
}}}

For details about languages specification see [trac:TracFaq TracFaq] question 2.13.

Other important information like the [wiki:TracInstall#MappingStaticResources mapping static resources advices] are useful for non-fastcgi specific installation aspects.

Relaunch Lighttpd and browse to `http://yourhost.example.org/trac` to access Trac.

Note about running Lighttpd with reduced permissions: If nothing else helps and trac.fcgi doesn't start with Lighttpd settings `server.username = "www-data"`, `server.groupname = "www-data"`, then in the `bin-environment` section set `PYTHON_EGG_CACHE` to the home directory of `www-data` or some other directory accessible to this account for writing.

== !LiteSpeed Configuration

The FastCGI front-end was developed primarily for use with alternative webservers, such as [http://www.litespeedtech.com/ LiteSpeed].

!LiteSpeed web server is an event-driven asynchronous Apache replacement designed from the ground-up to be secure, scalable, and operate with minimal resources. !LiteSpeed can operate directly from an Apache config file and is targeted for business-critical environments.

 1. Please make sure you have a working install of a Trac project. Test install with "tracd" first.
 1. Create a Virtual Host for this setup. From now on we will refer to this vhost as !TracVhost. For this tutorial we will be assuming that your Trac project will be accessible via:
{{{
http://yourdomain.com/trac/
}}}
 1. Go "!TracVhost → External Apps" tab and create a new "External Application":
{{{
Name: MyTracFCGI	
Address: uds://tmp/lshttpd/mytracfcgi.sock
Max Connections: 10
Environment: TRAC_ENV=/fullpathto/mytracproject/ <--- path to root folder of trac project
Initial Request Timeout (secs): 30
Retry Timeout (secs): 0
Persistent Connection	Yes
Connection Keepalive Timeout: 30
Response Bufferring: No	
Auto Start: Yes
Command: /usr/share/trac/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi  <--- path to trac.fcgi
Back Log: 50
Instances: 10
}}}
 1. Optional: If you need to use htpasswd based authentication. Go to "!TracVhost → Security" tab and create a new security Realm:
 {{{
DB Type: Password File
Realm Name: MyTracUserDB               <--- any name you wish and referenced later
User DB Location: /fullpathto/htpasswd <--- path to your htpasswd file
}}}
 If you don’t have a htpasswd file or don’t know how to create the entries within one, go to http://sherylcanter.com/encrypt.php, to generate the user:password combos.
 1. Go to "!PythonVhost → Contexts" and create a new FCGI Context:
 {{{
URI: /trac/                              <--- URI path to bind to python fcgi app we created	
Fast CGI App: [VHost Level] MyTractFCGI  <--- select the Trac fcgi extapp we just created
Realm: TracUserDB                        <--- only if (4) is set. select realm created in (4)
}}}
 1. Modify `/fullpathto/mytracproject/conf/trac.ini`:
 {{{
#find/set base_rul, url, and link variables
base_url = http://yourdomain.com/trac/ <--- base url to generate correct links to
url = http://yourdomain.com/trac/      <--- link of project
link = http://yourdomain.com/trac/     <--- link of graphic logo
}}}
 1. Restart !LiteSpeed: `lswsctrl restart`, and access your new Trac project at {{{http://yourdomain.com/trac/}}}.

== Nginx Configuration

[http://nginx.org/en/ Nginx] is able to communicate with FastCGI processes, but can not spawn them. So you need to start FastCGI server for Trac separately.

 1. Nginx configuration with basic authentication handled by Nginx - confirmed to work on 0.6.32
 {{{#!nginx
    server {
        listen       10.9.8.7:443;
        server_name  trac.example;

        ssl                  on;
        ssl_certificate      /etc/ssl/trac.example.crt;
        ssl_certificate_key  /etc/ssl/trac.example.key;

        ssl_session_timeout  5m;

        ssl_protocols  SSLv2 SSLv3 TLSv1;
        ssl_ciphers  ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP;
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers   on;

        # it makes sense to serve static resources through Nginx (or ``~ [/some/prefix]/chrome/(.*)``)
        location ~ /chrome/(.*) {
             alias /home/trac/instance/static/htdocs/$1;
        }

        # You can copy this whole location to ``location [/some/prefix](/login)``
        # and remove the auth entries below if you want Trac to enforce
        # authorization where appropriate instead of needing to authenticate
        # for accessing the whole site.
        # (Or ``~ location /some/prefix(/.*)``.)
        location ~ (/.*) {
            auth_basic            "trac realm";
            auth_basic_user_file /home/trac/htpasswd;

            # socket address
            fastcgi_pass   unix:/home/trac/run/instance.sock;

            # python - wsgi specific
            fastcgi_param HTTPS on;

            ## WSGI REQUIRED VARIABLES
            # WSGI application name - trac instance prefix.
	    # (Or ``fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_NAME  /some/prefix``.)
            fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_NAME        "";
            fastcgi_param  PATH_INFO          $1;

            ## WSGI NEEDED VARIABLES - trac warns about them
            fastcgi_param  REQUEST_METHOD     $request_method;
            fastcgi_param  SERVER_NAME        $server_name;
            fastcgi_param  SERVER_PORT        $server_port;
            fastcgi_param  SERVER_PROTOCOL    $server_protocol;
            fastcgi_param  QUERY_STRING       $query_string;

            # For Nginx authentication to work - do not forget to comment these
            # lines if not using Nginx for authentication
            fastcgi_param  AUTH_USER          $remote_user;
            fastcgi_param  REMOTE_USER        $remote_user;

            # for ip to work
            fastcgi_param REMOTE_ADDR         $remote_addr;

            # For attchments to work
            fastcgi_param    CONTENT_TYPE     $content_type;
            fastcgi_param    CONTENT_LENGTH   $content_length;
        }
    }
}}}
 1. Modified trac.fcgi:
 {{{#!python
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
sockaddr = '/home/trac/run/instance.sock'
os.environ['TRAC_ENV'] = '/home/trac/instance'

try:
     from trac.web.main import dispatch_request
     import trac.web._fcgi

     fcgiserv = trac.web._fcgi.WSGIServer(dispatch_request, 
          bindAddress = sockaddr, umask = 7)
     fcgiserv.run()

except SystemExit:
    raise
except Exception, e:
    print 'Content-Type: text/plain\r\n\r\n',
    print 'Oops...'
    print
    print 'Trac detected an internal error:'
    print
    print e
    print
    import traceback
    import StringIO
    tb = StringIO.StringIO()
    traceback.print_exc(file=tb)
    print tb.getvalue()

}}}
 1. Reload nginx and launch trac.fcgi: 
 {{{#!sh
trac@trac.example ~ $ ./trac-standalone-fcgi.py 
}}}

The above assumes that:
 * There is a user named 'trac' for running Trac instances and keeping Trac environments in its home directory
 * `/home/trac/instance` contains a Trac environment
 * `/home/trac/htpasswd` contains authentication information
 * `/home/trac/run` is owned by the same group the Nginx runs under
  * and if your system is Linux the `/home/trac/run` has setgid bit set (`chmod g+s run`)
  * and patch from [trac:#7239] is applied, or you'll have to fix the socket file permissions every time

Unfortunately Nginx does not support variable expansion in fastcgi_pass directive. 
Thus it is not possible to serve multiple Trac instances from one server block. 

If you worry enough about security, run Trac instances under separate users. 

Another way to run Trac as a FCGI external application is offered in [trac:#6224].

----
See also: TracGuide, TracInstall, [wiki:TracModWSGI ModWSGI], [wiki:TracCgi CGI], [wiki:TracModPython ModPython], [trac:TracNginxRecipe TracNginxRecipe]
