session expiration

[windandwaves]

Hi Folk

I have a site where I set a session cookie that expires in 1000 days.

As part of my script,. I create a $_SESSION["variable"].

Now, I am wondering, if the user closes their browser window and, for
example, come back to the site next week, will the session variable still be
there?

Thank you

- Nicolaas

[shwdai]

absolutely expired~

[Meiao]

Depends on his cookies setting and you Session configuration (if you
session uses cookies or the query string).

If user doesn't delete cookies when his browser closes (and your
Session uses cookies) then I guess the Session would be fine.

One more thing, Session data is (generally) saved in a file under /tmp
if files there get deleted, Session variable will be gone.

[Erwin Moller]

Meiao wrote:

Depends on his cookies setting and you Session configuration (if you
session uses cookies or the query string).

If user doesn't delete cookies when his browser closes (and your
Session uses cookies) then I guess the Session would be fine.
No, not under standard circumstances.

The COOKIE will be fine, true, but the sessiondata will be
garbaged-collected or time-out by timestamp.
So PHP cannot restore the session and will start a new session.

PHP will clean up old sessionfiles, and PHP decides when a file is old by
using php.ini settings.
I think default is half an hour.


One more thing, Session data is (generally) saved in a file under /tmp
if files there get deleted, Session variable will be gone.

Even when they file was for some reason NOT garbage collected, PHP checks
the timestamp, and decides it is old, and will not use it.
(This can happen if you disable garbage collection by making the chances for
it happening extremely small in php.ini)

To make the original posters scenario work, you need to make sessions last
for weeks, or months or whatever.
Not really a good thing to do, resourcewise. :-)

Regards,
Erwin Moller