Managing Software Development with Trac and Subversion

Trac is a minimalistic open-source enhanced wiki and bug/issue tracking system for software development projects, designed to help developers while staying out of the way and provides an interface to Subversion. Subversion is an open-source version control system that addresses many of the perceived deficiencies of CVS and can use WebDAV for network communications, and the Apache web server to provide repository-side network service.

This book presents a simple set of processes and practices that allow you to manage these projects using open-source software without getting in the way by imposing as little as possible on established development practices and policies.

This book looks at what is needed to manage software development projects, how web-based software project management system Trac and open-source revision control system Subversion meet these needs, and how to install, configure, and use them.

This book examines the software development process and how Trac and Subversion help fulfill the requirements of it. It combines theory with practical knowledge and experience that most developers will relate to.

• The basics of Trac and Subversion
• Installing Trac and Subversion on Microsoft Windows and Linux
• Creating a Subversion repository
• Creating a Trac project environment
• How to make Documentation easy using Trac and Subversion
• How to customize your project
• Version Control in Trac

Chapter 1 covers the basics of task management and how these apply to software development. It also looks into another important skill needed for managing projects—communication—and discusses the problems faced during software development and how they can be solved.

Chapter 2 introduces the various applications used for implementing the solution discussed in the chapter. Trac and Subversion are the main parts of the solution, but by no means the only ones.

Chapter 3 along with the appendices shows how to install these applications on Microsoft Windows or Linux.

Chapter 4 discusses how to create and use documentation using Trac.

Chapter 5 brings us back to the topic of task management and we again focus on Trac and how it helps us with this.

Chapter 6 explores the basics of using Subversion and looks at how it integrates with Trac.

Chapter 7 shows how Trac and Subversion can be used together to manage the two most frequent events in the development cycle of an application—fixing a bug and implementing a new feature.

Appendix A covers detailed, step by step instructions for installing Subversion on your system, and cover Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Appendix B covers detailed, step by step instructions for installing the Apache web server on your system, and covers Microsoft Windows and Linux

Appendix C covers detailed, step by step instructions for installing the Apache web server on your system, and covers Microsoft Windows and Linux

This book combines theory with practical knowledge of how Trac and Subversion can help us to achieve the process of managing the software development.

This book is aimed at developers of all calibres, but particularly those that lead teams or projects, especially if they have recently moved into the role or are simply looking for a “better way”.