Sessions dying

[jaymc]

For some reason sessions are 'dying' randomly for no reason

I do have a refresh on my site which calls the session then does some sql queries, im just wondering if it could be that

But then again, ive had the site running for over an hour with no problems

Generally, what causes sessions to die

WHen reading a session in a page do i need to do

session_start();
$sessionvar = $_SESSION['name'];

Or can i just do
$sessionvar = $_SESSION['name']

What can I look for in my code that my point to why the session is being destroyed..

[Asheeown]

[code]<?php
session_start();
header("Cache-control: private");


$sessionvar = $_SESSION['name'];
?>
[/code]

[quote]header("Cache-control: private");[/quote]
Is a security fix that was added in.
Sessions don't die unless you unset them or you exit your browser, check your php.ini file and see how long your sessions last

[jaymc]

What exactly is the purpose of [b]header("Cache-control: private");[/b]

And should I be doing session_start(); in every single page in which I am reading the session from

Because I can still read the session without session_start()

[Jessica]

lol yes you need to use session_start() on every page. I would use a config file which is included on every page.

[jaymc]

How come its working without doing that then?

Can it be set in the php.ini conf to start if not requested to start, I was in there before and seen something similar

But definetly Im not using session_start() apart from when logging in and its working ok?

[trq]

Yes, there is a session.auto_start directive in the php.ini. I would however ignore this and persist in using session_start() in all your scripts, your code will not be at all portable otherwise and its a bad habbit to get into.

[Jessica]

"But definetly Im not using session_start() apart from when logging in and its working ok?"
"For some reason sessions are 'dying' randomly for no reason"

These statements cannot coexist.

[jaymc]

It does just appear to be happening in Firefox

Ive added session start in all of the pages now...

[jaymc]

Yes, its just firefox in which its doing it in...

However, I do have the site open in IE and Firefox at the same time

Is it a case of the session only being valid for one of the browser?

In other words, is the session from IE killing the session file from firefox?

[jaymc]

Edit: Just to confirm, this is only happening in firefox

In IE their is no problem at all

Any ideas?

[jaymc]

More info

It is happening in IE aswell, but its a lot more frequent in firefox

In php.ini the session.cookie timeout is set to 86400 so something must be terminating the sesion right?

But Ive been through all my scripts and the only thing they have regarding sessions is
session_start();
$User_Session = $_SESSION['username'];

Thats all

[Jessica]

I think this may be your end. Either your browsers are misconfigured...or you're imagining some stuff.

[jaymc]

It is happening to other people..

Ive had like 50 people test this out and about 9 have came back and said yes its happening to me also..

Its driving me mad I simply cant find a bad piece of code or server configuration to write this off as

What could cause the termination of a session cookie that has been set for 86400 seconds

[trq]

[quote]What could cause the termination of a session cookie that has been set for 86400 seconds[/quote]

The closing of the browser.

[jaymc]

[quote author=thorpe link=topic=121834.msg503596#msg503596 date=1168642586]
[quote]What could cause the termination of a session cookie that has been set for 86400 seconds[/quote]

The closing of the browser.
[/quote]
The browser is not being closed

Seriously, it just appears to be killing its self when it pleases...

[trq]

Well, Im sorry but I can't really offer any solution. What you should do though is turn on error logging in your php.ini. Then view those logs. You might be having some sort of permissions issue on the server side that is stopping the local sessions from being saved.

[jaymc]

Any ideas? Please

[Asheeown]

I believe thorpe just gave a very reliable solution while it does require a certain amount of work it is almost guaranteed to work

[Jessica]

What is a session cookie? A Cookie is different than a Session

[trq]

[quote]What is a session cookie?[/quote]

Sessions use cookies. Well, they do by default anyway, otherwsie you need to pass the session id around in the url. Session cookies store the session id on the client, then, there is also a session file (cookie) stored on the server. This is how php is able to recognise one session from another.

[Jessica]

Ah I getcha :) I got confused for a second.

[jaymc]

[quote author=thorpe link=topic=121834.msg503647#msg503647 date=1168647656]
Well, Im sorry but I can't really offer any solution. What you should do though is turn on error logging in your php.ini. Then view those logs. You might be having some sort of permissions issue on the server side that is stopping the local sessions from being saved.
[/quote]
That could be feasable, but, how would the sessions be created in the first place and work fine anywhere from 1 minute to 3 hours...

I have an invision forum on the site and that is running fine, not sure if it uses session cookies etc...

But yeh, what your saying my site would either WORK or NOT WORK, I cant see any room for it working ok for a minute or 3 hours then screwing up...

Hmmm?

[trq]

sessions shouldn't be lasting 3 hours anyway, by default its something like 20 minutes. Invision more than likely uses a custom session handler which would store the sessions in the database. Mosdt forums do, its easier to create 'who's online' type scripts.

Im sorry, but I have no other ideas.

[jaymc]

I've enabled php error logging in php.ini

Where is the error log file ?

[trq]

By default it should go to the system logger. Hope youve got shell access, try...

[code]
/var/log/php
[/code]

If its a shared host, Im not sure, you'd need to contact your host.