= Trac Backup

[[TracGuideToc]]

Trac backups are simply a copied snapshot of the entire [wiki:TracEnvironment project environment] directory, including the database. Backups can be created using the `hotcopy` command in [wiki:TracAdmin trac-admin].

'''Note''': Trac uses the `hotcopy` nomenclature to match that of [http://subversion.tigris.org/ Subversion], to make it easier to remember when managing both Trac and Subversion servers.

== Creating a Backup

To create a backup of a live TracEnvironment simply run:
{{{#!sh
$ trac-admin /path/to/projenv hotcopy /path/to/backupdir
}}}

[wiki:TracAdmin trac-admin] will lock the database while copying.

The resulting backup directory is safe to handle using standard file-based backup tools like `tar` or `dump`/`restore`.

Please note, the `hotcopy` command will not overwrite a target directory and when such exists, the operation ends with an error: `Command failed: [Errno 17] File exists:` This is discussed in [trac:ticket:3198 #3198].

== Restoring a Backup

To restore an environment from a backup, stop the process running Trac, ie the Web server or [wiki:TracStandalone tracd], restore the contents of your backup (path/to/backupdir) to your [wiki:TracEnvironment project environment] directory and restart the service.

To restore a PostgreSQL database backup, use the command:
{{{#!sh
psql -U <user> -d <database> -f postgresql.dump
}}}

The `<database>` option is the same as the [TracEnvironment#DatabaseConnectionStrings database connection string] in the `[trac]` `database` option of //trac.ini//.

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See also: TracAdmin, TracEnvironment, TracGuide, [trac:TracMigrate TracMigrate]