$_SESSION / $HTTP_SESSION_VARS behaviour

[Michael Windsor]

I've been trying to integrate some PHP pages of my own with some
existing code. The details of this are for the support forums for that
code (where I have been asking questions), but I wonder if someone here
can enlighten me as to why the problematic code is having the effect it is.

For reasons I don't know, if the PHP version is 5 or greater,
register_long_arrays is false and $_SESSION exists, the following
statement is executed:

$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = $_SESSION;

This line is stopping any subsequent changes to the $_SESSION variable
from being stored in the session file on the server - changes can be
made, but are all lost at the end of the page processing and the value
reverts to whatever it was before the script was executed.

Is this behaviour by design? Why does it happen? Is there a standard
reason why anyone would include a statement like this (security?)?

I'm seeing this behaviour on PHP 5.1.3 / Win 2003 sp1 / IIS 6 and on PHP
5.1.6 / Win XP sp2 / Apache 2.

Thanks for any help!

Regards,
Mike

[serkanhamarat]

Try this:

$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = &$_SESSION;

[Michael Windsor]

se***********@gmail.com wrote:

Try this:

$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = &$_SESSION;

Thanks for the suggestion, but as I don't know the intended purpose of
this statement, I don't really want to mess about with it without
understanding a bit more.

I was hoping someone would be able to tell me why a coder (who
presumably knows what they're doing) would write such a statement in the
first place...

Regards,
Mike

[Pedro Graca]

Michael Windsor wrote:

For reasons I don't know, if the PHP version is 5 or greater,
register_long_arrays is false and $_SESSION exists, the following
statement is executed:

$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = $_SESSION;

Probably the script was written for PHP version < (something) when the
superglobal arrays were not defined.
Instead of changing the script to use the "new" superglobal arrays, the
programmer chose to copy the $_SESSION array to the $HTTP_SESSION_VARS
and keep everything else referencing $HTTP_SESSION_VARS['index'].

This line is stopping any subsequent changes to the $_SESSION variable
from being stored in the session file on the server - changes can be
made, but are all lost at the end of the page processing and the value
reverts to whatever it was before the script was executed.

Check the very end of the script for a line

$_SESSION = $HTTP_SESSION_VARS;
--
I (almost) never check the dodgeit address.
If you *really* need to mail me, use the address in the Reply-To
header with a message in *plain* *text* *without* *attachments*.

[Michael Windsor]

Pedro Graca wrote:

Michael Windsor wrote:

>For reasons I don't know, if the PHP version is 5 or greater,
register_long_arrays is false and $_SESSION exists, the following
statement is executed:

$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = $_SESSION;

Probably the script was written for PHP version < (something) when the
superglobal arrays were not defined.
Instead of changing the script to use the "new" superglobal arrays, the
programmer chose to copy the $_SESSION array to the $HTTP_SESSION_VARS
and keep everything else referencing $HTTP_SESSION_VARS['index'].

>This line is stopping any subsequent changes to the $_SESSION variable
from being stored in the session file on the server - changes can be
made, but are all lost at the end of the page processing and the value
reverts to whatever it was before the script was executed.

Check the very end of the script for a line

$_SESSION = $HTTP_SESSION_VARS;

Thanks for your help.

What you say makes sense and made me realise what the code was for - I'm
afraid I hadn't quite clicked what the test for "register_long_arrays"
was doing: somehow I saw "register_long_arrays" and read
"register_globals" and therefore hadn't realised that $HTTP_SESSION_VARS
isn't pre-populated on my system (by virtue of using the newer,
recommended php.ini in the distribution, as it turns out).

I can't find a corresponding assignment *to* the $_SESSION array in the
same file or that I can trace in any of the other included files. On the
surface, if this were happening, it would appear to perfectly explain my
problem - I write to $_SESSION and it gets overwritten by the contents
of $HTTP_SESSION_VARS at the end of the script.

But this can't be the whole story: I've written code after the last
include that shows the same probem and, in fact, if I remove all the
phpbb code and *just* put "$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = $_SESSION" after
session_start(), it stops $_SESSION behaving properly in exactly the
same way. It doesn't have to be $HTTP_SESSION_VARS, incidentally,
assigning the value of $_SESSION to any other variable has the same effect.

Could this be a bug in PHP?

Thanks again,
Mike

[Pedro Graca]

Michael Windsor wrote:

if I [...] put "$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = $_SESSION" after
session_start(), it stops $_SESSION behaving properly [...]

Could this be a bug in PHP?

My PHP does not exhibit that behaviour.
Can it be that you have /something else/ in your code responsible for
the behaviour you describe?
<?php
session_start();

if (rand(0, 1)) {

echo "Using copy of the \$_SESSION array...<br>\n";

$COPY_SESSION = $_SESSION;
if (!isset($COPY_SESSION['count'])) {
$COPY_SESSION['count'] = 0;
}
$val = ++$COPY_SESSION['count'];
if (rand(0, 1)) {
echo "and not copying it back.<br>\n";
} else {
$_SESSION = $COPY_SESSION;
}

} else {

if (!isset($_SESSION['count'])) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 0;
}
$val = ++$_SESSION['count'];

}

echo "Current value is $val.<br>\n";
?>

--
I (almost) never check the dodgeit address.
If you *really* need to mail me, use the address in the Reply-To
header with a message in *plain* *text* *without* *attachments*.

[Michael Windsor]

Pedro Graca wrote:

Michael Windsor wrote:

>if I [...] put "$HTTP_SESSION_VARS = $_SESSION" after
session_start(), it stops $_SESSION behaving properly [...]

Could this be a bug in PHP?

My PHP does not exhibit that behaviour.
Can it be that you have /something else/ in your code responsible for
the behaviour you describe?

[snip code]

Your code on my web server exhibits the behaviour I would expect, but it
doesn't quite test the problem I'm having. If your code is amended as
follows:

<?php
session_start();

if (rand(0, 1)) {

echo "Using copy of the \$_SESSION array...<br>\n";

$COPY_SESSION = $_SESSION;
if (rand(0, 1)) {
echo "and not copying it back.<br>\n";
} else {
$_SESSION = $COPY_SESSION;
}
if (!isset($_SESSION['count'])) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 0;
}
$val = ++$_SESSION['count'];

} else {

if (!isset($_SESSION['count'])) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 0;
}
$val = ++$_SESSION['count'];

}

echo "Current value is $val.<br>\n";
?>

counter increments are only shown on pages following a page where a copy
is NOT taken of $_SESSION (i.e. the final else clause is executed),
regardless of whether the copy of $_SESSION is written back to it or
not. Note that all increments in this version of the code are made
directly to the $_SESSION array, never to a copy: the counter *should*
increment on every page load, as far as I can see. It doesn't on my system.

[Pedro Graca]

Michael Windsor wrote:

<?php
session_start();

if (rand(0, 1)) {

echo "Using copy of the \$_SESSION array...<br>\n";

$COPY_SESSION = $_SESSION;
if (rand(0, 1)) {
echo "and not copying it back.<br>\n";
} else {
$_SESSION = $COPY_SESSION;
}
if (!isset($_SESSION['count'])) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 0;
}
$val = ++$_SESSION['count'];

} else {

if (!isset($_SESSION['count'])) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 0;
}
$val = ++$_SESSION['count'];

}

echo "Current value is $val.<br>\n";
?>

counter increments are only shown on pages following a page where a copy
is NOT taken of $_SESSION (i.e. the final else clause is executed),
regardless of whether the copy of $_SESSION is written back to it or
not. Note that all increments in this version of the code are made
directly to the $_SESSION array, never to a copy: the counter *should*
increment on every page load, as far as I can see. It doesn't on my system.

This amended script *always* increments the current value for me.
Can you post the result of phpinfo()?

[Michael Windsor]

Pedro Graca wrote:

Michael Windsor wrote:

....[snip]...

>
This amended script *always* increments the current value for me.
Can you post the result of phpinfo()?

Sure.

If you'd like a more formatted version, I'll gladly email you the
generated html.

As far as I can recall, I haven't changed anything other than paths from
the default installation settings, excepting that I used the "new
improved" php.ini in the distribution and not the older (but, if I
recall, more compatible php.ini-dist). This installation is a proper
install from the standard distribution.

Although I haven't tested this particular script with it, I have been
seeing similar results on an XP laptop running PHP 5.1.6 installed as
part of the WAMP (http://www.wampserver.com/en/) distribution. Let me
know if the phpinfo() data from there would also be useful.

Thanks,
Mike

PHP Logo
PHP Version 5.1.3

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_SERVER["APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH"] c:\inetpub\wwwroot\
_SERVER["INSTANCE_ID"] 1
_SERVER["INSTANCE_META_PATH"] /LM/W3SVC/1
_SERVER["LOGON_USER"] no value
_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] /PHPTest/info.php
_SERVER["URL"] /PHPTest/info.php
_SERVER["SCRIPT_FILENAME"] c:\inetpub\wwwroot/PHPTest/info.php
_SERVER["ORIG_PATH_INFO"] /PHPTest/info.php
_SERVER["PATH_INFO"] no value
_SERVER["ORIG_PATH_TRANSLATED"] c:\inetpub\wwwroot\PHPTest\info.php
_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] c:\inetpub\wwwroot
_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] /PHPTest/info.php
_SERVER["HTTP_CONNECTION"] keep-alive
_SERVER["HTTP_KEEP_ALIVE"] 300
_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT"]
text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET"] ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING"] gzip,deflate
_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE"] en-gb,en;q=0.5
_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] agora
_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"] Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1;
en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
_SERVER["REQUEST_TIME"] 1162839245

[Pedro Graca]

Michael Windsor wrote:
[...]

session

[...]

Directive Local Value Master Value

[...]

session.save_path no value no value

[...]

I believe `session.save_path` is your problem.
If there's no value for it, PHP will use "/tmp". Do you have a "C:\tmp"
directory on your disk?

Try changing php.ini and specify an existing directory for the
session.save_path entry, or create a "C:\tmp" directory.

Or do it within a test script first:

<?php
# session_save_path('C:/WINDOWS/TEMP');
session_save_path('C:\\WINDOWS\\TEMP');
session_start();

if (rand(0, 1)) {
echo "Using copy of the \$_SESSION array...<br>\n";
$COPY_SESSION = $_SESSION;
if (rand(0, 1)) {
echo "and not copying it back.<br>\n";
} else {
$_SESSION = $COPY_SESSION;
}
if (!isset($_SESSION['count'])) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 0;
}
$val = ++$_SESSION['count'];

} else {

if (!isset($_SESSION[çount'])) {
$_SESSION['count'] = 0;
}
$val = ++$_SESSION['count'];
}

echo "Current value is $val.<br>\n";
?>

--
I (almost) never check the dodgeit address.
If you *really* need to mail me, use the address in the Reply-To
header with a message in *plain* *text* *without* *attachments*.

[Michael Windsor]

Pedro Graca wrote:

Michael Windsor wrote:
[...]

>session

[...]

>Directive Local Value Master Value

[...]

>session.save_path no value no value

[...]

I believe `session.save_path` is your problem.
If there's no value for it, PHP will use "/tmp". Do you have a "C:\tmp"
directory on your disk?

Try changing php.ini and specify an existing directory for the
session.save_path entry, or create a "C:\tmp" directory.

Or do it within a test script first:

....[snip]...

>

I looked at this previously - I was examining the session files to see
if I could determine the problem. Session information is being stored in
C:\WINDOWS\Temp already; presumably PHP is defaulting to the system temp
path in the absence of a defined value.

Anyway, I'm sorry to report that adding the session_save_path() call
doesn't make any difference to the running of the script: the value is
still only incremented when $_SESSION is not assigned to another variable.

Just to make sure, I changed php.ini to specify a session path, but
again, it didn't make any difference, with or without the
session_save_path() call.

Are you running PHP on Windows? I'm wondering if that's the deciding factor.

I really appreciate your help!

Thanks,
Mike

[Pedro Graca]

Michael Windsor wrote:

Are you running PHP on Windows? I'm wondering if that's the deciding factor.

No, I'm on Linux, still with PHP 4.3.

I'm out of explanations for the behaviour you see.
Try switching on

zend.ze1_compatibility_mode

http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.oop.php

I doubt it will have an effect, but it will not do any harm to try it.

--
I (almost) never check the dodgeit address.
If you *really* need to mail me, use the address in the Reply-To
header with a message in *plain* *text* *without* *attachments*.

[Michael Windsor]

Pedro Graca wrote:

Michael Windsor wrote:

>Are you running PHP on Windows? I'm wondering if that's the deciding factor.

No, I'm on Linux, still with PHP 4.3.

I'm out of explanations for the behaviour you see.
Try switching on

zend.ze1_compatibility_mode

http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.oop.php

I doubt it will have an effect, but it will not do any harm to try it.

It would seem that this is a bug in PHP
(http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=38833). Not only that, but the
maintainers of PHP are unwilling to fix it
(http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=37926)!

IMO, this is not a "documentation bug", as some have tried to suggest,
but a flaw in the implementation of the superglobals, or at the very
least in $_SESSION. I have made a contribution to the tracker to reflect
my viewpoint.

Mike