PEAR Auth - check on each page

[kevin bailey]

I have a framework working where I have multiple pages each checking the
authentication status.

Unauthorised users are redirected to a login page - otherwise the requested
page is shown.
Now my question is just to get a little clarification.

On the login page I create and object of type Auth
$a = new Auth("MDB2", $options, "loginFunction");

and then run

$a->start();

Fine so far.

Now at the top of the each authorised-only page I create a new Auth object
and then check the auth status.

$a = new Auth("MDB2");

if (!$a->checkAuth()) {

HTTP::redirect("login.php");
}

My question is that the new Auth object - $a - can be created with *any*
parameters. It could even be:

$a = new Auth("DB");

And the check works fine.

Do I take it that the Auth object only needs the correct container and
options set up when it runs the start() method? If the name/password come
back in as POSTED correctly then start() will create session variables.

And I take it that these session variables can then be checked by any old
invocation of Auth?

Thanks for any clarification,

Kevin