Problem with sessions

Alternamaton · June 13, 2007

This is apparently a common problem, but none of the threads that I found when I did various searches ("Windows PHP sessions", "Windows 'PHP 5' sessions", etc.) actually had an answer that worked for me.

I'm running WAMP on Windows XP Home Edition.

Here are the two scripts that I'm trying to get to work (using sessions):

sessiontest.php:

<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION["var"] = 1;
?>

sessiontest2.php:

<?php
session_start();
?>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>New Document</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<?
echo $_SESSION['var'];
?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

sessiontest2.php doesn't display the session variable when I load the script after running sessiontest.php.

I tried using session_register(), but apparently that's defunct as of PHP 5. I tried removing the session_start() from sessiontest2.php, and nothing happened. Here is the relevant portion of my php.ini file:

[session]

; Handler used to store/retrieve data.

session.save_handler = files

; Argument passed to save_handler. In the case of files, this is the path

; where data files are stored. Note: Windows users have to change this

; variable in order to use PHP's session functions.

;

; As of PHP 4.0.1, you can define the path as:

;

; session.save_path = "N;/path"

;

; where N is an integer. Instead of storing all the session files in

; /path, what this will do is use subdirectories N-levels deep, and

; store the session data in those directories. This is useful if you

; or your OS have problems with lots of files in one directory, and is

; a more efficient layout for servers that handle lots of sessions.

;

; NOTE 1: PHP will not create this directory structure automatically.

; You can use the script in the ext/session dir for that purpose.

; NOTE 2: See the section on garbage collection below if you choose to

; use subdirectories for session storage

;

; The file storage module creates files using mode 600 by default.

; You can change that by using

;

; session.save_path = "N;MODE;/path"

;

; where MODE is the octal representation of the mode. Note that this

; does not overwrite the process's umask.

session.save_path = "c:\wamp\tmp"

; Whether to use cookies.

session.use_cookies = 1

; This option enables administrators to make their users invulnerable to

; attacks which involve passing session ids in URLs; defaults to 0.

; session.use_only_cookies = 1

; Name of the session (used as cookie name).

session.name = PHPSESSID

; Initialize session on request startup.

session.auto_start = 0

; Lifetime in seconds of cookie or, if 0, until browser is restarted.

session.cookie_lifetime = 0

; The path for which the cookie is valid.

session.cookie_path = /

; The domain for which the cookie is valid.

session.cookie_domain =

; Handler used to serialize data. php is the standard serializer of PHP.

session.serialize_handler = php

; Define the probability that the 'garbage collection' process is started

; on every session initialization.

; The probability is calculated by using gc_probability/gc_divisor,

; e.g. 1/100 means there is a 1% chance that the GC process starts

; on each request.

session.gc_probability = 1

session.gc_divisor = 100

; After this number of seconds, stored data will be seen as 'garbage' and

; cleaned up by the garbage collection process.

session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440

; NOTE: If you are using the subdirectory option for storing session files

; (see session.save_path above), then garbage collection does *not*

; happen automatically. You will need to do your own garbage

; collection through a shell script, cron entry, or some other method.

; For example, the following script would is the equivalent of

; setting session.gc_maxlifetime to 1440 (1440 seconds = 24 minutes):

; cd /path/to/sessions; find -cmin +24 | xargs rm

; PHP 4.2 and less have an undocumented feature/bug that allows you to

; to initialize a session variable in the global scope, albeit register_globals

; is disabled. PHP 4.3 and later will warn you, if this feature is used.

; You can disable the feature and the warning seperately. At this time,

; the warning is only displayed, if bug_compat_42 is enabled.

session.bug_compat_42 = 1

session.bug_compat_warn = 1

; Check HTTP Referer to invalidate externally stored URLs containing ids.

; HTTP_REFERER has to contain this substring for the session to be

; considered as valid.

session.referer_check =

; How many bytes to read from the file.

session.entropy_length = 0

; Specified here to create the session id.

session.entropy_file =

;session.entropy_length = 16

;session.entropy_file = /dev/urandom

; Set to {nocache,private,public,} to determine HTTP caching aspects

; or leave this empty to avoid sending anti-caching headers.

session.cache_limiter = nocache

; Document expires after n minutes.

session.cache_expire = 180

; trans sid support is disabled by default.

; Use of trans sid may risk your users security.

; Use this option with caution.

; - User may send URL contains active session ID

; to other person via. email/irc/etc.

; - URL that contains active session ID may be stored

; in publically accessible computer.

; - User may access your site with the same session ID

; always using URL stored in browser's history or bookmarks.

session.use_trans_sid = 0

; Select a hash function

; 0: MD5 (128 bits)

; 1: SHA-1 (160 bits)

session.hash_function = 0

; Define how many bits are stored in each character when converting

; the binary hash data to something readable.

;

; 4 bits: 0-9, a-f

; 5 bits: 0-9, a-v

; 6 bits: 0-9, a-z, A-Z, "-", ","

session.hash_bits_per_character = 4

; The URL rewriter will look for URLs in a defined set of HTML tags.

; form/fieldset are special; if you include them here, the rewriter will

; add a hidden <input> field with the info which is otherwise appended

; to URLs. If you want XHTML conformity, remove the form entry.

; Note that all valid entries require a "=", even if no value follows.

url_rewriter.tags = "a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,form=,fieldset="

I tried adding c:\wamp\tmp to my PATH variable, and that didn't do anything. I tried leaving session.save_path and session.cookie_path blank (because it worked for someone in one of the threads that I found when I did my searches), and that didn't do anthing, so I put the defaults back.

I opened the c:\wamp\tmp directory, and when I run sessiontest.php a session file is saved there, but when I exit the window the file remains, and if I refresh the browser the file remains. I tried changing session.auto_start to 1 and that didn't work, so I set it back to 0.

Every time I made a change to php.ini I restarted Apache.

There's probably something that I'm overlooking, but I've tried numerous things and nothing has worked.

trq · June 13, 2007

Make sure you use the full <?php and not <?

<?php
session_start();
?>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>New Document</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<?php
echo $_SESSION['var'];
?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Alternamaton · June 13, 2007

Oh my god, I can't believe that was it. With every new thread that I post here, I become more and more embarrassed, because there's always some very simple solution that I've missed.

The PHP editor that I downloaded starts each file with:

<HTML>

<TITLE>New Document</TITLE>

<BODY>

<?

?>

</BODY>

</HTML>

And sometimes I forget to change it. :-[

Sorry to waste everyone's time. LOL.

EDIT: That worked (sessiontest2.php displayed the session variable), but the session file in c:/wamp/tmp still isn't deleted when I close the browser window. If I close the browser and restart it, another session file is created, alongside the first (which remains).

trq · June 13, 2007

but the session file in c:/wamp/tmp still isn't deleted when I close the browser window.

I believe it can sometimes take a little while for garbage collection to take care of it. Wouldn't worry about it.

Alternamaton · June 13, 2007

Ahhhhh, I remember now that in the php.ini file there is a setting to determine the probability of garbage collection taking place when you run a script. I think mine is like 1/100.

So, the sessions can coexist peacefully, and the browser will always know to use the current session (rather than an old session that hasn't been deleted).

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