= Trac Backup

[[TracGuideToc]]

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

'''Note''': Trac uses the `hotcopy` nomenclature to match that of [https://subversion.apache.org/ Subversion].

== Creating a Backup

Create a backup of a live TracEnvironment by running:
{{{#!sh
$ trac-admin /path/to/projenv hotcopy /path/to/backupdir
}}}

The database will be locked while hotcopy is running.

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. When the target exists the operation will end with an error: `Command failed: [Errno 17] File exists:` This is discussed in [trac:#3198 #3198].

== Restoring a Backup

To restore an environment from a backup, stop the process running Trac, ie the web server or [TracStandalone tracd], restore the contents of your backup to your [TracEnvironment project environment] directory and restart the process.

If you are using a database other than SQLite, you'll need to restore the database from the dump file. The dump file is saved in the environment `db` directory.

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

The `<database>` option is the same as the [TracEnvironment#DatabaseConnectionStrings database connection string] in the [TracIni#trac-database-option "[trac] database"] option of the project's `trac.ini` file.

Similarly, for MySQL:

{{{#!sh
$ mysql -u <user> -p <database> < /path/to/mysql.dump
}}}

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