Saving session to database

Question

I'm having a problem with webtrees ... http://webtrees.net/
My copy is running on http://webtrees.lsces.org.uk and you will see that it is throwing an error relating to the session handling.

Running Apache 2.2.22, PHP5.4.14, MySQL 5.5.31 ( http://lsces.org.uk/phpinfo.php )

If I comment out the session_set_save_handler() section of session.php then I can log in and use the site. Have tried reworking that as a SessionHandlerInterface without any success. As far as I can see, the 'write' function of the handler is not being called and while there are various notes about problems with PHP5.4 blocking access to the write and close functions, none of the fixes I have tried have resulted in a working setup.

Anybody seen this problem with PHP5.4?

http://lsces.org.uk/hg/webtrees/file/dcf6ff358108/includes/session.php#l334 is the code that seems to be failing.

Answer 1

What error do you get? I tried loading the site but it shows up fine. In general, you should post the error message for two reasons:
1) Most people don't bother to open a (terrible slow) website.
2) Archives, so if anyone after you comes up with the same problem, he will be able to refer to the archives to find his solution.

Answer 2

Been working on this most of the morning without success :( Faulty version is back up, and showing all the error messages, but basically ...

ERROR 2: session_regenerate_id(): Session object destruction failed 0 Error occurred on in function session_regenerate_id. But I think it's the initial session write that is failing

ERROR 2: session_write_close(): Failed to write session data (user). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct (/var/lib/php5) 0 Error occurred on in function session_write_close

But it should be writing to the database not the file directory.

Comments

It seems to me the session functions are failing, probably due to problems with the database. Have you checked that there actually is a ##session table in your database?
You might want to add some debugging code to these functions, to check if errors occur with inserting or retrieving the sessions from the database.

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Well past that stage without making any progress. Using the write function outside of the session_set_save_handler() it works perfectly, and then the read can see the saved sessions and can load them.

I am convinced that something is wrong with the general setup which is preventing the write and close from firing when it should. I can not trace any attempt to call the write function in the session handling.

I'm currently checking out the adodb-session handler which WAS working in PHP5.3 but seems to be showing similar problems in PHP5.4

Answer 3

Well, I'm not sure what would be the problem here, but some general comments:
There have been various changes in session handling between 5.3 and 5.4, so most likely it is in there. Check if there are any references to register_shutdown_function, and replace them with session_register_shutdown.

Second, check the return value of session_set_save_handler, it is a bad habit not checking return value of a function, just because it works. If that doesn't help, take the session piece out of the big framework, and
test it in a separate file. If that also fails, you've got a small piece of code you can post here which will encourage others to have a look at it at their box.

Answer 4

I've found database session storage requires extra diligence in error handling. When I see that error at 0 it is usually because something blew up either before the session handler was ready or after it was torn down.