unexpected end of session

III · Post by **III** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:31 am

a couple of times since the up(?)grade, i've noticed that when posting a new message i'll be logged out when i hit the submit button. it's not consistant. they tend to be longer posts, so it *might* be that the default session time has been reset (or it could be that some other php app is sharing the same session directory, and doing garbage collection on its own schedule) or it could be a side effect of the actual posting, since i've also left sessions sitting for a while without any problems.

or, i could just be confused...

III · Post by **III** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:32 am

heh. it just happened again, on that post...

III · Post by **III** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 12:36 am

there were 7 minutes between the last two posts, and i think maybe it only took about 4 to compose that message. the default for php (not bb) sessions is 24 minutes. i suspect it's not the session timing out...

technopatra · Post by **technopatra** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 11:50 am

III wrote:a couple of times since the up(?)grade, i've noticed that when posting a new message i'll be logged out when i hit the submit button. it's not consistant. they tend to be longer posts, so it *might* be that the default session time has been reset (or it could be that some other php app is sharing the same session directory, and doing garbage collection on its own schedule) or it could be a side effect of the actual posting, since i've also left sessions sitting for a while without any problems.

or, i could just be confused...

I think your first suggestion nails it - we did reset the session time to be longer in the previous version of phpbb, and should have done so again.

As with the avatar issue, I'm afraid this is due to negligence of keeping track of the minor customizations we've made to the system. Rest assured that we are correcting this - we will have a proper checklist the next time we have to upgrade, so these aggravating incidents don't happen again.

III · Post by **III** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 1:36 pm

it seems to be uniquely related to posting - i've let it sit idle for up to about 20 minutes with no problem, but (as seen above) when posting it took less than 8 minutes, and it's *always* when i hit the "submit" button.

mebbe i'll take a look over on the phpbb boards to see if it's a listed bug. urk - developer talk. blech.

technopatra · Post by **technopatra** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 9:49 pm

OK we did in fact have the session timeout set to 4 hrs, so that wasn't it. Still looking.

III · Post by **III** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 12:10 am

>>we did in fact have the session timeout set to 4 hrs

be careful that there are no other php apps running sessions on the same server - under the default configuration, any app can clean up another's "old" session information based on its own settings. but i'm still not sure that's it.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 6:55 pm

I have'nt been seeing what Trey is talking about but seems that others may have been running across similar effects elsewheres.

http://www.icehousedesigns.com/communit ... .php?t=603

dont know if this is close to what Trey is talking about but it may be worth a look.

III · Post by **III** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:01 pm

the problem i'm experiencing is different from that.

the symptom:

i type in a post, and when i hit the "submit" button, i get sent to the login page.

this can happen for a couple of reasons - i actually logged out, and was attempting to post without logging in, i waited to long and phpbb logged me out, or my session information (which is stored on the server and accessed based on information from a cookie) disappeared. this can happen because of garbage collection, which may be done by *any* php app that stores session information in the same directory. the sporadic nature of this problem may point to something else, though. i'll see if i can find something wonky going on from my end.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:27 pm

Thanks Trey I misunderstood.

Now I understand what you mean. I always thought that was the way phpbbs was supposed to respond.
You will also get the same response when you are logged out reading in a thread as a guest and want to post .

each thread or page that you are in as a guest will send you the same way. I think it is a php issue not necessarily garbage in the cookie.
there should be a hack for that either at phpbbs or elsewhere or switch in the admin. If I get lucky and find a solution on my setup or come across a hack I'll let you guys know.
Lets see what happens.

precipitate · Post by **precipitate** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 9:52 pm

The first two behaviors (posting to a registered thread while not logged in,
and experiencing a session timeout) are definitely the way phpBB is
designed to work.

The third (being logged in, and not at the end of the specified session time,
but having the login screen come up when you submit a new post) is
definitely not. And I've also not been able to find reported bugs that match
this condition, but that's probably because the support site uses phpBB.

III · Post by **III** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:07 am

i'm still experienceing this problem.

i'm not sure if the tech team is aware that effective php session times are determined by the shortest of *all* the applications that use them.

you can set your session timeout in one application to 5 years, and if you have another application which times out after 1 minute, it will garbage collect the sessions from the first application (effectively ending them) in that time frame.

i'm not sure what other software runs on this machine, but i get the impression that there's quite a bit, and that some of it also uses php.

the only reliable way of separating them is to use different directories for the session information, and i'm not sure that phpbb allows that to be configured from that admin panel.

this wouldn't be so much of a pain in the ass, except that the automatic logout screws up keeping track of what i have or have not read.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 12:11 pm

i have had similar experiences and they are usually accompanied by all topics being marked as read. Although the latter happens spontaneously w/o posting as well.

Post by **admin** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 6:38 pm

I am looking into it. None of the other PHP "applications" set session times AFAIK. How long has this been happening to you? When did you notice it?

~Spanky

\<>/

III · Post by **III** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 10:34 pm

i've noticed it since the (2.0.6?) upgrade. it just happened to me twice in the past half an hour (once while posting, once otherwise.)

III · Post by **III** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 10:34 pm

thanks for looking at it, btw!

unexpected end of session

unexpected end of session

Re: unexpected end of session

strike one...