Geeklog Forums

Is Geeklog currently using database driven sessions? I found a thread where Dirk said 1.3.10 had it disabled, but I'm running 1.3.11 and am not sure if that was put back in.

If it is, is there anyway for me to disable it, and if I disable it, what impact will that have?

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www.antisource.com

Back when 1.3.10 was under development, we experimented with using PEAR's HTTP_Session package. It didn't work out so well, so it was removed again.

Geeklog is still using its rather dated session handling (which is actually in part based on phpB.

bye, Dirk

My database was corrupted today, and my host has been helping me out with finding out why we keep having mysql problems - here is a snippet of my log:

Tue Jul 26 11:43:14 2005 - 1034: Incorrect key file for table: 'gl_sessions'. Try to repair it.

Tue Jul 26 11:46:42 2005 - 1016: Can't open file: 'gl_sessions.MYI'. (errno: 145).


He asked if there was any way I could remove database driven sessions. Over time he's had other customers with mysql problems, usually related to their Blogs, and getting rid of db-driven sessions has alleviated the problem in the past.

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www.antisource.com

Depends on what you consider a "table-driven session". Obviously, we have to store the session id somewhere - in the database seems to make the most sense. Where else would you store the session id?

bye, Dirk

What is the Session ID important for / how does it get used?

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www.antisource.com

Simply speaking, it's used to identify you once you've logged in. Otherwise, you would have to log in on every page again ...

The session id is then stored in the database and in a cookie and for as long as the session is valid, you're automatically recognized that way.

bye, Dirk

I see - so it's not really important for guests? I'm usually the only one logged in, or sometimes I'll be on when someone else is posting in the forum. So that definitely should not be causing a problem with the the table.

But, I did get 60,000 unique page hits last month, and they tend to come in spikes. Is GL using this session tracking for guests too? Can I disable just that?

You asked how else you could track sessions without keeping them in the db - phpBB adds a SID to the URLs. Is that their way of doing it without saving it to the db, or does that have more to do with users that don't enable cookies?

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www.antisource.com

Geeklog creates a pseudo session id for anonymous users. I guess it's not really needed, but I'm not sure what happens when you try to disable that Usually, when I fiddle with the session handling, I tend to break it, at least on the first try ...

And, yes, a session parameter in the URL is just a replacement for the cookie.

bye, Dirk

Okay... well, besides the mechanics of it and the obvious need of keeping it there - any ideas why it is getting corrupted? GL should still be handling a site of 60,000 page views per month okay, right?

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www.antisource.com

Nope. It happens on geeklog.net, too. About every other month ...



I don't know how many "page views" we have but the 1 GB of traffic per day must be coming from somewhere ...

bye, Dirk