[[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 Subversion, to make it easier to remember when managing both Trac and Subversion servers.
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//.
See also: TracAdmin, TracEnvironment, TracGuide, [trac:TracMigrate TracMigrate]