00924: pmwiki doesn't work with php 'user' session.save_handler

Summary: pmwiki doesn't work with php 'user' session.save_handler
Created: 2007-05-20 08:23
Status: Open
Category: Bug
Assigned:
Priority: 4
Version: 2.2.0beta42
OS: debian etch stable packages

Description: Hi,

setup : pmwiki 2.2.0 beta42 with authuser and a readonly site

I try to use a third party session manager named 'sharedance' (http://sharedance.pureftpd.org) and I found that I cannot log in my wiki. Just after login, I get a blank page.

Here are the logs found in error.log : PHP Fatal error: session_start() [<a href='function.session-start'>function.session-start</a>]: Failed to initialize storage module: user

I investigated and found that the several session_start() calls made by pmwiki are the root causes of this issue.

I then tried to change session_start with if (!session_id()) session_start(); and it seemes to work better (i.e I can use sharedance as a session manager and login/logout on my pmwiki site).

Can you confirm this issue ?

2007/06/02 : found a workaround

I googled a bit around this issue and found this - rather old but still valid - page : http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=32330

Calling session_destroy() and session_write_close() functions seems to *disable* the user session save_handler. Reassigning session.save_handler after such a call make the trick (I tested it). I then patched pmwiki.php to call a user defined function which reassign session.save_handler each time pmwiki call session_destroy and session_write_close()

I must admit that this is not very elegant :(

jean-fabrice