PHP 4.0 Bug #6157: Sessions not working -- problem with files

From: vaughan@ucla.edu Operating system: Linux 2.2.14 PHP version: 4.0.1pl2 PHP Bug Type: Session related Bug description: Sessions not working -- problem with files page1.php <?php session_start(); session_register("my_var"); $my_var="test"; echo $my_var; ?> page2.php <?php session_start(); $a=session_is_registered("my_var"); echo "a has value $a"; echo $my_var; ?> page1.php produces the expected output: test. page2.php produces: a has value so the session is not working. track_vars is enabled, register_globals is enabled. php.ini file [sessions] [Session] session.save_handler = files ; handler used to store/retrieve data session.save_path = /phpsessions ; argument passed to save_handler ; in the case of files, this is the ; path where data files are stored session.use_cookies = 1 ; whether to use cookies : session.name = PHPSESSID ; name of the session ; is used as cookie name session.auto_start = 0 ; initialize session on request startup session.cookie_lifetime = 0 ; lifetime in seconds of cookie ; or if 0, until browser is restarted session.cookie_path = / ; the path the cookie is valid for session.cookie_domain = ; the domain the cookie is valid for session.serialize_handler = php ; handler used to serialize data ; php is the standard serializer of PHP session.gc_probability = 1 ; procentual probability that the ; 'garbage collection' process is started ; on every session initialization session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440 ; after this number of seconds, stored ; data will be seen as 'garbage' and ; cleaned up by the gc process session.extern_referer_check = ; session.entropy_file = ; session.entropy_length = 0 ; the directory /phpsessions is owned by the process that is running apache. the directory contains files with names like this: sess_7ec31a321f14710b8f6f96be239e0a2c but they are empty (recorded as 0 bytes). and the apache error log contains the following (which looks like it might have been output by php): <b>Warning</b>: write failed: Bad file descriptor (9) in <b>Unknown</b> on line <b>0</b><br> <b>Warning</b>: Failed to write session data. Please check that the current set ting of session.save_path is correct (/phpsessions) in <b>Unknown</b> on line <b >0</b><br> <br> Apache version: 1.3.12 Debian Linux 2.2.13ac2 #1 loaded modules: mod_php4, mod_setenvif, mod_unique_id, mod_expires, mod_auth, mod_access, mod_rewrite, mod_alias, mod_userdir, mod_cgi, mod_dir, mod_autoindex, mod_status, mod_negotiation, mod_mime, mod_log_config, mod_macro, mod_so, http_core I have tried changing the session_save_handler to the same name as the owner of the apache process, but it makes no difference. Sessions were working just fine in the previous release of version 4 of PHP.