Converting from sqlite to mariadb/mysql

[Bruce Dubbs]

At the linuxfromscratch project we have been using Trac for a very long time.  The last time we updated Trac was in 2021 using the latest development system at that time.  Over the years our sqlite databases have grown quite large: 287M, 884M, and 642M respectively.

We have noticed some response problems and want to update to the latest Trac and convert to mariadb.

Doing some testing on a test server we installed python3.13, Trac-1.6, PyMySQL, and mariadb-11.8.5. We then copied a current trac.db to the test system and ran sqlite3mysql to copy the trac.db into mariadb.  

We can log into mariadb with  'mariadb -u tracuser -p trac_db' and all looks good.  We do have a symlink  /usr/bin/mysql -> mariadb

We then edited the  trac.ini file to read:

#[sqlite]
#extensions = 
...

[trac]

...

#database = sqlite:db/trac.db
#database = mysql://tracuser:password/trac_db?unix_socket=/run/mariadb/

    mariadb.sock
database = mysql://tracuser:password@localhost/trac_db

but no matter what we try after restarting apache get the error message:

TracError: Unable to check for upgrade of trac.db.api.DatabaseManager: TracError: Unsupported database type "mysql"

What are we missing?

[Jun Omae]

Hi,

I'd suggest to check errors in trac.log. The pymysql library is
required for MySQL but it is unavailable in your environment.

See also: https://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/SqLiteToMySql

--
Jun Omae <jun...@gmail.com> (大前 潤)

[Bruce Dubbs]

I did look at trac.log. It just says the error message above.
I also said above that pymysql is installed. I checked with:

$ python3
Python 3.13.7 (main, Feb 3 2026, 16:47:05) [GCC 15.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pymysql

without error.

I tried the following:

trac-admin /srv/trac/lfs convert_db mysql://tracuser:password@localhost/trac_db

But got the following:

/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/trac/__init__.py:14: UserWarning: pkg_resources is
deprecated as an API. See https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html.
The pkg_resources package is slated for removal as early as 2025-11-30. Refrain from
using this package or pin to Setuptools<81.

from pkg_resources import DistributionNotFound, get_distribution
Error: Unable to check for upgrade of trac.db.api.DatabaseManager: TimeoutError:
Unable to get database connection within 10 seconds.

> See also: https://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/SqLiteToMySql
I did but it did not help

By the way, this is a linuxfromscratch build. The above indicates to me that it is
looking for some commercial distribution like Debian or Fedora. I suspect I need some
more detailed advice.

[Jun Omae]

I guess it is failing to connect to the database via TCP. Please check
connecting to the database via TCP connection using mariadb client.

> #database = mysql://tracuser:password/trac_db?unix_socket=/run/mariadb/
> mariadb.sock

If you want to use unix domain socket, use like the following ("@" character is
needed after the password):

mysql://tracuser:password@/trac_db?unix_socket=/run/mariadb/mariadb.sock

[Bruce Dubbs]

I had tried that earlier, but I did not have the @ after the password. I set that up
and restarted apache, but still got two errors in the log (slightly formatted for
spacing):

2026-02-06 11:44:29,086 Trac[env]
ERROR: Exception caught while checking for upgrade:

TracError: Unable to check for upgrade of trac.db.api.DatabaseManager:
TracError: Unsupported database type "mysql"

I also rechecked that mariadb/mysql is listening at port 3306 and retried with

database = mysql://tracuser:password@localhost/trac_db

and got the same answer.

To me it appears that Trac is not even trying to connect to the database. It does
work if I revert to sqlite.

What can I try next?