Session problems

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  • Daniel Bengs
    #1

    Session problems

    Hi there...

    I've got a problem where a normal string variable loses its value after
    session_start() is called. The funny thing is, that this only happens
    for some people, and they are using IE6, but it does not happen with all
    versions of IE6. I've tested myself only with Mozilla and IE5, but the
    problem does not occur for me.

    I've got a username stored in $user, which is obtained from the $_POST
    variable, but after session_start() is called $user is empty, but the
    username still is in $_POST['username'].

    PHP version is 4.3.1 on Apache on a linux server.


    Then another problem I have is being logged out from a session after a
    certain length of inactivity it would seem. I've only noticed this on
    a server which is running PHP 4.3.3/Apache 1.3.28/linux. It's about
    after half an hour of inactivity that I get logged out. I've checked
    the cookie and it is set to expire on session/browser exit. I haven't
    noticed this behavior on my own server also running PHP 4.3.3. I also
    checked the PHP session configuration and it's the same on both servers.

    So, any ideas what could be causing this...?


    Thanks for any help,
    Daniel Bengs

    Tags: None
    • Matthias Esken
      #2
      Re: Session problems

      Daniel Bengs <a-very@non-existing-e-mail-adress.com> schrieb:
      [color=blue]
      > I've got a problem where a normal string variable loses its value after
      > session_start() is called. The funny thing is, that this only happens
      > for some people, and they are using IE6, but it does not happen with all
      > versions of IE6. I've tested myself only with Mozilla and IE5, but the
      > problem does not occur for me.[/color]

      Very strange. PHP is running on the server, not on the browser.
      [color=blue]
      > I've got a username stored in $user, which is obtained from the $_POST
      > variable, but after session_start() is called $user is empty, but the
      > username still is in $_POST['username'].[/color]

      This is one of the problems if register_global s is activated. Could you
      check this?
      [color=blue]
      > Then another problem I have is being logged out from a session after a
      > certain length of inactivity it would seem. I've only noticed this on
      > a server which is running PHP 4.3.3/Apache 1.3.28/linux. It's about
      > after half an hour of inactivity that I get logged out. I've checked
      > the cookie and it is set to expire on session/browser exit. I haven't
      > noticed this behavior on my own server also running PHP 4.3.3. I also
      > checked the PHP session configuration and it's the same on both servers.[/color]

      Sure? What's the value of session.gc_maxl ifetime and
      session.gc_prob ability = 1 in the php.ini?

      Regards,
      Matthias

        Comment

        • Daniel Bengs
          #3
          Re: Session problems

          Matthias Esken wrote:[color=blue]
          > Daniel Bengs <a-very@non-existing-e-mail-adress.com> schrieb:
          >
          >[color=green]
          >>I've got a problem where a normal string variable loses its value after
          >>session_start () is called. The funny thing is, that this only happens
          >>for some people, and they are using IE6, but it does not happen with all
          >>versions of IE6. I've tested myself only with Mozilla and IE5, but the
          >>problem does not occur for me.[/color]
          >
          >
          > Very strange. PHP is running on the server, not on the browser.
          >
          >[color=green]
          >>I've got a username stored in $user, which is obtained from the $_POST
          >>variable, but after session_start() is called $user is empty, but the
          >>username still is in $_POST['username'].[/color]
          >
          >
          > This is one of the problems if register_global s is activated. Could you
          > check this?[/color]

          Yes, according to phpinfo() register globals is on.
          [color=blue][color=green]
          >>Then another problem I have is being logged out from a session after a
          >>certain length of inactivity it would seem. I've only noticed this on
          >>a server which is running PHP 4.3.3/Apache 1.3.28/linux. It's about
          >>after half an hour of inactivity that I get logged out. I've checked
          >>the cookie and it is set to expire on session/browser exit. I haven't
          >>noticed this behavior on my own server also running PHP 4.3.3. I also
          >>checked the PHP session configuration and it's the same on both servers.[/color]
          >
          >
          > Sure? What's the value of session.gc_maxl ifetime and
          > session.gc_prob ability = 1 in the php.ini?[/color]

          session.gc_maxl ifetime 1440
          session.gc_prob ability 1

          ....according to phpinfo() at least...

            Comment

            • Daniel Bengs
              #4
              Re: Session problems

              Daniel Bengs wrote:
              [color=blue]
              > Matthias Esken wrote:
              >[color=green]
              >> Daniel Bengs <a-very@non-existing-e-mail-adress.com> schrieb:
              >>
              >>[color=darkred]
              >>> I've got a problem where a normal string variable loses its value
              >>> after session_start() is called. The funny thing is, that this only
              >>> happens for some people, and they are using IE6, but it does not
              >>> happen with all versions of IE6. I've tested myself only with Mozilla
              >>> and IE5, but the problem does not occur for me.[/color]
              >>
              >>
              >>
              >> Very strange. PHP is running on the server, not on the browser.
              >>
              >>[color=darkred]
              >>> I've got a username stored in $user, which is obtained from the $_POST
              >>> variable, but after session_start() is called $user is empty, but the
              >>> username still is in $_POST['username'].[/color]
              >>
              >>
              >>
              >> This is one of the problems if register_global s is activated. Could you
              >> check this?[/color]
              >
              >
              > Yes, according to phpinfo() register globals is on.
              >[/color]

              What's also common for the people in this case is that they are on an
              internal network, not that I understand why that would make any
              difference either... :)

              And now I also noticed another funny thing. On one page where an
              addition to a mysql database is made a field, which is the user who made
              the addition, is empty for some persons, but not everyone who makes the
              addition. The username value is retrieved with:

              "((string) $_SESSION['username'])".

              But when the username, on the same page, is written to a logfile, with
              the same code above, it is not empty.

                Comment

                • Matthias Esken
                  #5
                  Re: Session problems

                  Daniel Bengs <a-very@non-existing-e-mail-adress.com> schrieb:
                  [color=blue]
                  > And now I also noticed another funny thing. On one page where an
                  > addition to a mysql database is made a field, which is the user who made
                  > the addition, is empty for some persons, but not everyone who makes the
                  > addition. The username value is retrieved with:
                  >
                  > "((string) $_SESSION['username'])".
                  >
                  > But when the username, on the same page, is written to a logfile, with
                  > the same code above, it is not empty.[/color]

                  Does the problem occur while displaying the data or storing the data in
                  the database.

                  In the second case, there might be some special chars like ' in the
                  username. Always use mysql_escape_st ring() for values that you want to
                  send to the MySQL server.

                  Regards,
                  Matthias

                    Comment

                    • Matthias Esken
                      #6
                      Re: Session problems

                      Daniel Bengs <a-very@non-existing-e-mail-adress.com> schrieb:
                      [color=blue]
                      > Matthias Esken wrote:
                      >[color=green]
                      >> Sure? What's the value of session.gc_maxl ifetime and
                      >> session.gc_prob ability = 1 in the php.ini?[/color]
                      >
                      > session.gc_maxl ifetime 1440
                      > session.gc_prob ability 1[/color]

                      So the session is considered invalid after 1440 seconds of inactivity
                      which are 24 minutes. With a probability of 1% the session is killed
                      during a session initialization. If not, you can continue to use the
                      session. If a lot of requests hit the server, the probability that the
                      idling session is killed after 30 minutes is very high. If you're just
                      testing your code with one user, it might take longer. Increase
                      session.gc_maxl ifetime if you need more time.

                      Regards,
                      Matthias

                        Comment

                        • Daniel Bengs
                          #7
                          Re: Session problems

                          Matthias Esken <muelleimer2003 nospam@usenetve rwaltung.org> wrote in message news:<bnrgsm.1g 0.1@usenet.eske n.de>...[color=blue]
                          > Daniel Bengs <a-very@non-existing-e-mail-adress.com> schrieb:
                          >[color=green]
                          > > And now I also noticed another funny thing. On one page where an
                          > > addition to a mysql database is made a field, which is the user who made
                          > > the addition, is empty for some persons, but not everyone who makes the
                          > > addition. The username value is retrieved with:
                          > >
                          > > "((string) $_SESSION['username'])".
                          > >
                          > > But when the username, on the same page, is written to a logfile, with
                          > > the same code above, it is not empty.[/color]
                          >
                          > Does the problem occur while displaying the data or storing the data in
                          > the database.[/color]

                          Displaying it... anyway, it seems that it works better now when I
                          moved the session_start to the top of the code, but I still didn't
                          have any code that was outputting anything...
                          [color=blue]
                          > In the second case, there might be some special chars like ' in the
                          > username. Always use mysql_escape_st ring() for values that you want to
                          > send to the MySQL server.[/color]

                          None of the usernames have any special characters...


                          PS. My news server didn't get the last two posts (besides a whole lot
                          other posts it doesn't get) and therefore I haven't answered before
                          now. So I'm using Google groups now instead...

                            Comment

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