Session ids lost on a 5th page

Using a cvs build from about... 20 minutes ago (9:00 AM EST). OS is FreeBSD 4.1.1-Release gcc version 2.95.2 19991024 (release) Currently have a series of pages that rely upon data being set on a first page, and run through and modified on each page thereafter. Its a fairly large setup...on the 5th page though, the session id is not found by PHP, and a new one is assigned. The system is set to use cookies. The document root on the machine works like this: /usr/local/www/data with the following underlying directories: Login home setup include weather error images js Upon initial login, the user starts in the 'Login' directory and dependent upon if some of their information is found, they are redirected to a series of pages in the 'setup' directory (to add the information), or to the 'home' directory. In the case of data not found, the user is over to the 'setup' directories just fine, but upon the 5th page the session id is lost. The follow this series of steps looks something like so: Login/login_redirect.php | (initial session id created here) | +--->setup/new_settop_redirect.php | +--> setup/setup_add_select_lang.php | +--> setup/setup_legal_disclaimer.php | (new session id created here) | +--> setup/new_settop_redirect.php | +--> setup/setup_add_settop.php Fortunately or unfortunately the new id does not seem to change again, but I am unable to test further than one page as it redirects to an error page, and ends the user add process. In the case of already having this user data, the session Id is lost immediately after the login_redirect.php Because this system is going to potentially be used in our Internet TV system, we have a customized browser (NTSC/PAL don't exactly like standard Netscape), and I haven't discounted that the browser can be losing the cookie, although I'm told this is extremely unlikely. In an effort to further help understand whats happening in this process, I've added in a series of php_error statements to the session.c under the session_start function. Basically to get a feeling of the flow of php session creation, and to have both php state when its creating a new session, and our browser to display what cookies it has at each request. At one location I have placed two php_error statements (using E_WARNING) next to each other, and the result is only one is ever printed (the first). The change done to the session.c are found below, area of interest marked with a "+>" : static void php_session_start(PSLS_D) { pval **ppid; pval **data; char *p; int send_cookie = 1; int define_sid = 1; int module_number = PS(module_number); int nrand; int lensess; ELS_FETCH(); php_error(E_WARNING, "php_session_start: entered function"); if (PS(nr_open_sessions) != 0) return; lensess = strlen(PS(session_name)); /* * Cookies are preferred, because initially * cookie and get variables will be available. */ if (!PS(id)) { +> php_error(E_WARNING, "php_session_start: no current id found"); +> php_error(E_WARNING, "php_session_start; searching cookie vars"); if (zend_hash_find(&EG(symbol_table), "HTTP_COOKIE_VARS", sizeof("HTTP_COOKIE_VARS"), (void **) &data) == SUCCESS && Z_TYPE_PP(data) == IS_ARRAY && zend_hash_find(Z_ARRVAL_PP(data), PS(session_name), lensess + 1, (void **) &ppid) == SUCCESS) { PPID2SID; define_sid = 0; send_cookie = 0; php_error(E_WARNING, "php_session_start; found cookie var %s",PS(id)); } <...snip...> A copy of the output to the php-error.log file is found here: <errorentry> <datetime>01-11-2000 09:44:37 (EST)</datetime> <errornum>2</errornum> <errortype>Warning</errortype> <errormsg>php_session_start: entered function</errormsg> <scriptname>/usr/local/www/data/Login/login_redirect.php</scriptname> <scriptlinenum>31</scriptlinenum> </errorentry> <errorentry> <datetime>01-11-2000 09:44:37 (EST)</datetime> <errornum>2</errornum> <errortype>Warning</errortype> <errormsg>php_session_start: no current id found</errormsg> <scriptname>/usr/local/www/data/Login/login_redirect.php</scriptname> <scriptlinenum>31</scriptlinenum> </errorentry> <errorentry> <datetime>01-11-2000 09:44:37 (EST)</datetime> <errornum>2</errornum> <errortype>Warning</errortype> <errormsg>php_session_start: its a valid page request, generate a new id for it</errormsg> <scriptname>/usr/local/www/data/Login/login_redirect.php</scriptname> <scriptlinenum>31</scriptlinenum> </errorentry> From the flow print out above, it seems as if php_error #3 is never printed, despite being placed IMMEDIATELY after php_error #2... no conditionals between it. I have built this, made it clean, rebuilt it, and even tried pulling down a cvs build from scratch and re-adding my changes. This has happened on each try, and the question is why? If anyone out there can help me understand why this session id is being lost on the 5th page, I would appriciate it greatly. Or if you can even explain why the third php_error is never printed, that would hopefully help me further understand what is happening to the session id. Regardless thanks for reading this far! A copy of the php.ini file session section: [Session] session.save_handler = files ; handler used to store/retrieve data session.save_path = /tmp ; argument passed to save_handler ; in the case of files, this is the ; path where data files are stored session.use_cookies = 1 session.name = TICS 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 ; percentual 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.referer_check = session.entropy_length = 16 session.entropy_file = /dev/urandom session.cache_limiter = nocache ; set to {nocache,private,public} to session.cache_expire = 180 A copy of the configure options: ./configure --with-imap \ --with-gettext \ --with-pgsql \ --enable-debug \ --enable-debugger \ --enable-snmp \ --enable-track-vars \ --enable-trans-sid \ --with-gd=/usr/local \ --with-apxs=/usr/local/sbin/apxs \ --disable-magic-quotes \ --enable-short-tags \ --without-mysql \ --without-tsrm-pthreads \ --enable-wddx \ --prefix=/suproot/usr/local -- Dan Kalowsky "Tonight I think I'll walk alone, Worldgate Communications I'll find my soul as I go home." Software Engineer - TICS Group - Temptation