[drupal-devel] [feature] "remember me" doesn't work
kbahey
drupal-devel at drupal.org
Sun Feb 13 20:02:11 UTC 2005
Project: Drupal
Version: cvs
Component: user.module
Category: feature requests
Priority: normal
Assigned to: kbahey
Reported by: marco
Updated by: kbahey
Status: patch
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/session-inc-3.patch (2.25 KB)
If it was up to me, I would have moved all the .htaccess php values and
flag into Drupal itself using ini_set. This way, it does not matter
who takes precedence over whom (.htaccess, global php.ini, php.ini in
users' public_html directory, ...etc.). However, different PHP versions
have different permissions and defaults, and this would not be possible
until everyone settles down on PHP5.
Goba, I know that it can all be on one line. My personal preference is
to break it down to be more readable. However, for the sake of being
consistent with everyones' else code, I will do it your way.
Here is a version of the patch that:
1. Makes it all on one line (variable_get is not stored in a temporary
variable)
2. Makes the comment doxygen style
3. Comments out the variable in .htaccess
4. Adds the values for ensuring that PHP would not append the PHPSESSID
to the url, and only uses cookies to .htaccess
kbahey
Previous comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 22, 2003 - 08:37 : marco
"remember me" checkbox in the login box doesn't work; even if the
checkbox is left unchecked the user is NOT forgotten when he quits the
browser. Try logging in w/o "remember me", then quit the browser and
open it again: you should be still logged in.
What happens:
when you login w/o checkbox user.module outputs a cookie with lifetime
= 0 ("until session ends"); but user.module calls session_start() at
the beginning, which outputs a cookie too, with the lifetime specified
in .htaccess; and session_start() outputs this cookie always, so on the
next page the cookie from user_login() will be overwritten.
I run Mozilla 1.4; I can replicate with Drupal 4.0 and Drupal 4.2 on
PHP 4.3.3, and I can replicate this on drupal.org which also runs PHP
4.3.3; OTOH I can't replicate on a site running Drupal 4.2 with PHP
4.2.2, which may mean session_start() changed with PHP 4.3.x; I looked
in the changelog of PHP but couldn't find anything. I didn't have any
report about this before upgrading to PHP 4.3.3, which also seems to
strengthen the hypothesis of a changed behaviour in PHP. Another test I
did also showed that with PHP 4.2.2 no cookie is printed by
session_start() if a session cookie is found, while it is always
printed in PHP 4.3.3; I double checked the configurations and didn't
find anything which may cause this.
If you want to investigate this, I suggest you to use Mozilla and Live
HTTP Headers plugin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 10, 2003 - 19:37 : moshe weitzman
Can anyone confirm this? Also, how to fix?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 12, 2003 - 12:45 : axel at debian.linuxrulez.ru
I agree it for Mozilla 1.0. On my site running on FreeBSD 4.7,
PHP/4.3.0, Drupal CVS (Oct 3) this function also don't work. Though,
with Galeon 1.2.5 cookie works ok.
On localhost (Debian GNU/Linux 3.0, PHP 4.1.2, same Drupal cvs version)
it works ok with Mozilla & Galeon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 12, 2003 - 13:34 : al
The original bug report is surely due to Drupal needing to unset the
cookie that it originally stored?
To fix this bug, we therefore need a check on the user login/validation
stage which forcibly unsets the cookie if you don't do "remember me".
I suspect Axel's problems with one of his sites and not the other are
due to him blocking a cookie originally and having that site on his
Mozilla's list of sites to ban cookies from, or similar.
Axel - if you are genuinely having issues with remember me not working
at all (and not the fault originally described in this report by Ax)
then please open a different bug report. Please make sure it's a
genuine problem first - i.e. clear your blocked cookies sites list in
Mozilla.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 12, 2003 - 18:24 : axel at debian.linuxrulez.ru
Well. I don't sure what is a bug, therefore first post the question
about it to forum [1]. Answer to that question point me to this bug
report.
Already several users of my site [2] report me about problem with
"remember me" (I don't know which browsers they use). And there are not
any blocked sites in my Mozilla cookies list - from site I receive only
cookie PHPSESSID that expire time shows "at end of session".
[1] http://drupal.org/node/view/3601
[2] http://debian.linuxrulez.ru
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 17, 2003 - 15:36 : dmo
Expect "remember me" problems for users of Internet Explorer 6.
Depending on the privacy settings, IE6 may automatically expire all
cookies at the end of the browser session if your site doesn't have a
compact P3P policy. See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpriv/html/ie6privacyfeature.asp
and http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/10/04/p3p.html for
further details.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 17, 2003 - 21:53 : moshe weitzman
since noone can reproduce this, i am marking as 'by design'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 25, 2003 - 02:41 : junyoung
This is not a IE6 specific problem. I have seen the same symptom with
IE5.5/6.0, Opera 7.0/7.1, and Konqueror 3.1.x so far. FWIW, my blog
site is running with Drupal 4.2.0 + PHP 4.3.3.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 25, 2003 - 09:06 : remco at rc6.org
Same problem on http://rc6.org, though the other way around.
No matter what I do, my session will time out eventually. Tested using
Opera 7.x, IE, Mozilla and Epiphany.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 25, 2003 - 10:00 : moshe weitzman
reopening this case. i confirm the behavior that marco describes using
rc6.org and drupal.org.
i find it easiest to just turn cookie prompting on in order to watch
what is happenning. what i am seeing, like marco described, is that our
'permanent cookie' which is supposed to last for a year is being
overwritten in the next request with a standard session cookie that
expires in the time frame specified in .htaccess. for drupal.org,
standard sesson cookies last 1 month whereas the permanent cookie lasts
for a year.
i don't know how to fix this from within drupal. the cookie that we lay
down for 'remember me' is working fine. the problem is the later
overwrite which is caused by PHP's session handing, not drupal.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 26, 2003 - 07:35 : moshe weitzman
To make matters more complicated, I cannot reproduce this using PHP as
an ISAPI module on IIS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 26, 2003 - 14:07 : Dries
Maybe we can set a "remember" bit in the session table and periodically
wipe users who don't have the "remember"-bit set. The wiping part
could be added to sess_gc() ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 3, 2003 - 20:30 : joshk
I have this problem w/musicforamerica.org
The really maddening thing is that I have another install of drupal 4.3
on the same webserver and it works just fine.
If the problem is with drupal's cookie being overwritten by a PHP
session cookie, can this be fixed by giving the cookies different
names? Sounds too simple to be the solution...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 12, 2003 - 11:48 : ykoehler
http://ca.php.net/manual/en/function.session-set-cookie-params.php
Even though drupal is sending a cookie, it should always set this PHP
parameter so that the session_start() call will use the same value, or
not send any cookie at all by itself and let session_start() do it
with, again, a call to this function to set the correct parameter.
The reason why you don't get the same on a site basis is probably due
to the different php.ini used for those sites as the default depends on
the installation and not drupal which is probably why only some get the
bug if there's such a thing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 30, 2003 - 15:50 : paul at murphymaphia.com
I am having the opposite problem. Even if I check the "remember me" box
my session ends when the browser closes and I'm forced to log in the
next time I return to the site. No cookie is EVER set by my site.
http://www.murphymaphia.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 20, 2004 - 12:31 : mathias
Charles Miller has written a persistent login cookie best practices [3]
i feel is worth reading.
[3]
http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2004/01/19/persistent_login_cookie_best_practice
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 11, 2004 - 13:20 : paul at murphymaphia.com
Has any progress been made on this? I have spent a lot of time in the
code and can't manage to track this problem down. If anyone has any
ideas, thoughts, etc to share, post them here so we can get this
solved.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2004 - 00:07 : dmjossel
I have this problem (remember me feature not working) in Drupal 4.3.x on
PHP 4.3.2.
I do NOT have it on Drupal 4.2 on PHP 4.3.2, in exactly the same
environment.
So perhaps sessions have changed in PHP 4.3.x, but this still didn't
break Drupal 4.2, only 4.3.x.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 26, 2004 - 08:47 : moshe weitzman
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/_4drupal (5.3 KB)
Here is a patch which attempts to resolve this problem. I took Josh's
suggestion - just rename the permanent cookie so it get overwritten by
the PHP session cookie. So this patch names our permanent cookie
'remember_me'. The value of this cookie is the current sessionID. This
cookie is checked in sess_read(). It is set just as before, in
user_login().
I refactored sess_read() a bit for cleaner flow. It uses a new helper
function called sess_construct_user().
Feedback welcome. Since not everyone experienced a problem with
remember me, I'm particlarly interested in feedback from those who did.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 2, 2004 - 05:43 : dmjossel
No observable effect. Users who click "remember me" are still logged out
after a period of inactivity or a browser restart, as is true in 4.3.2
(but not true in 4.2 on the same machine).
Just out of curiosity I made similar changes in a copy of 4.3.2,
renaming the cookie-- also with no effect.
What *is* odd is that I used to see this problem using Drupal.org
itself. But I seem now to have been logged in for quite awhile (several
days) without having to reauthenticate, despite long periods of
inactivity and browser restarts.
Has some change other than this patch been made to CVS running on the
live site?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 2, 2004 - 06:21 : dmjossel
One more follow up: the patch re-enables the "remember me" button on
logon and the preferences for the user.module, but not the "logout"
button in the user info block.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 6, 2004 - 11:33 : moshe weitzman
The logout link never left, so naturally this patch does not re-instate
it. By "user-info" block, i'm guessing that you mean the 'Navigation'
block which holds the menu().
Drupal.org issues session cookies for a month so you can remain logged
in for a long time.
Anyone else have feedback on this patch. It is working for me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 6, 2004 - 12:01 : Jeremy at kerneltrap.org
Your patch works perfectly for me.
I tested with three browsers (from Linux): Mozilla Firefox, Konquerer,
Internet Explorer (via Wine)
I did the following with each:
1) with latest CVS installation, I log in then restart my browser. I
have to relogin.
2) I applied your patch to my CVS installation.
3) I logged in w/o checking "remember me". I then restart my browser,
and I'm not logged in.
4) I logged in w/ "remember me" checked. I restart my browser, and I'm
still logged in.
5) I logged in w/ "remember me" checked. I click logout, then restart
my browser. I have to login again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 8, 2004 - 20:09 : Brian at brianpuccio.net
Using weitzmann's patch works for me. I had no problem when running
4.3.0, 4.3.1, or 4.3.2 on my site, but adding 4.4.0 I had to log in
each time. Applying the patch to my (next to stock, but ever so
slightly modified) install of 4.4.0 fixes the problem and I am
remembered across browser tab closings, browser closings and system
restarts.
Thank you greatly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 11, 2004 - 12:18 : Jeremy at kerneltrap.org
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/session.inc.patch (651 bytes)
I believe there is a small bug in weitzman's patch. I've been running
with it applied on KernelTrap.org for some time, with much positive
feedback from users. However, I noticed that occasionally I become a
phantom surfer -- I'm logged in and accessing pages, but I don't show
up in the "Who's online" block. I suspect the online guests number is
low, too.
After a little digging, I came up with the attached simple patch. I
have yet to confirm if it solves the phantom surfer problem.
Essentially, when we log in with a cookie we also update the sessions
table timestamp.
To use, first apply weitzman's patch (earlier in this thread), then
apply this one.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 11, 2004 - 16:28 : Jeremy at kerneltrap.org
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/session.inc_0.patch (584 bytes)
My earlier patch didn't work. It was redundant with sess_write(), and
added nothing new. Hence, it didn't fix the "phantom user" that I've
been experiencing.
Now, however, I believe I fully understand what's going wrong.
Essentially what's happening is a user is being loaded via the
remember_me cookie, but their session id is different. Thus, the
db_query in sess_write() fails to update a user session in the
database. This patch detects that failure and acts accordingly by
creating a new entry.
This patch applies against drupal 4.4 with weitzman's patch [4]
applied.
[4] http://drupal.org/files/issues/_4drupal
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 15, 2004 - 02:39 : mabster
Still seems to be a bit flakey. I get logged out every once in a while
at work for some reason (during the day). And every time I move from my
work to my home machines (or vice versa) I need to login again.
Does the cookie base itself on my IP address or something? Could it be
that because I'm switching between two different PCs that it can't
remember my session details?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 21, 2004 - 21:19 : dmjossel
I've upgraded the site Rampancy.net to Drupal 4.4 and applied Weitzman's
patch. The behavior I'm seeing now I don't completely understand.
Logging in to the site, you can quit the browser and stay logged in.
But after a period of inactivity, somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes,
the session expires and you have to log in again. I don't see this
behavior on drupal.org.
php.ini on the server is set for session cookies to last for 30 days.
Drupal, by default, is supposed to give cookies that last 1 year.
Is there anything else I should be looking at? Apparently some admins
have this problem and others don't.
Server info:
FreeBSD synfibers.com 4.7-RELEASE-p22 FreeBSD 4.7-RELEASE-p22 #29: Tu
i386
Apache/1.3.27 OpenSSL/0.9.7 (Unix) PHP/4.3.4
registered session save handlers are files and user. (local value is
user)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 21, 2004 - 22:20 : mabster
Yes, dmjossel's description matches the behaviour on my site
(www.madprops.org).
We're a hosted site, so I'm not exactly sure of the server's details.
I'm fairly certain it's Windows2003. Definitely a Windows flavour,
anyway, which means that this problem (with the patch applied) is not
restricted to Linux.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 23, 2004 - 05:26 : dmjossel
Apologies first for using this like a forum...
mabster, upload a file to the server with the phpinfo(); in it (inside
PHP tags of course).
What values does it show for cookie-related functions? For
session_save_handler?
Perhaps there is a common element in server configuration in these two
cases, despite the different operating systems.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 23, 2004 - 05:48 : mabster
session.save_handler = files
session.cookie_domain = no value
session.cookie_lifetime = 0
session.cookie_path = /
session.use_cookies = On
session.use_only_cookie = Off
Other info (at least until someone tells me that publishing this info
is dangerous and I remove the file) here [5].
[5] http://www.madprops.org/info.php
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 23, 2004 - 11:12 : dmjossel
Suggestions... try setting session.use_only_cookies =1 either in
php.ini, or if you don't have access to that, by using ini_set in
drupal's php.conf and see if that has any effect.
Next change Drupal's site configuration for the user module, and toggle
whether you allow users to choose whether or not to be logged out (this
produces the "remember me" cookie if you've installed weitzman's patch)
or choose "users are never logged out".
Neither of these seem to help here, but perhaps they'd help you.
I noticed that until I set my browser to "accept all cookies
automatically" and set session.use_only_cookies =1, I was getting the
PHPSESSID cookie, but not the remember_me cookie.
Now I get them both... but still logged out after 30 minutes of idle
time, no matter what.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 23, 2004 - 11:26 : moshe weitzman
those are not the session values that ship with drupal (see .htaccess
file). for example, session_save_handler has to be 'user'. otherwise,
you are not using drupal's session table and your 'remember me' will
fail.
since you are using IIS, you have to set your php.ini with values like
those found in .htaccess. .htaccess files are only respected by Apache
(and even then, not always. depends on your web host).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 23, 2004 - 19:39 : mabster
Just out of interest, weitzman: How does drupal.org's 'remember me'
work? I installed a cookie inspector on my machine at work, and didn't
see any 'remember me' values in drupal.org's cookie. Does it use a
different system?
I will see what our host can do about changing the php.ini values.
Since there are many sites hosted on that one box, it'll be a long shot
to get them to change it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 24, 2004 - 12:21 : dmjossel
Try tweaking the value of session.gc_maxlifetime either in the .htaccess
file or in php.ini.
The default value in the .htaccess file seems to be 1440 seconds-- or
24 minutes, almost exactly the amount of time my sessions were lasting
before being forced to log in again.
I've increased this value, and now I'm seeing the remember_me cookie
stay with the same value, while the PHPSESSID cookie is constantly
being replaced by a new one-- but I don't have to log in again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 24, 2004 - 20:23 : dmjossel
Well, it's the next morning here, and I'm still logged in at
Rampancy.net and the other Drupal 4.3 sites that are hosted on the same
machine. I think at least this might be a workaround for those who have
this problem and Weitzman's patch alone doesn't solve it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 25, 2004 - 20:02 : dmjossel
After a longer period of inactivity (equal to the value of
session.gc_maxlifetime) the sessions ALWAYS seem to log the user out,
regardless of the remember_me cookie value, the PHPSESSID value, or the
configuration settings for the user module.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 6, 2004 - 06:34 : Robert L
I can confirm #41, have tried changing some of the sessions vars in
.htaccess, but this did not solve the problem. Sessions are destroyed
after some time of browser inactivity (some hours). At the browser side
things look oke, it happens with Mozilla and IE. Have not tested the
patch yet, I am not using the remember me cookie option, and this looks
another unrelated (?) problem to me. I use PHP 4.3.6 with Apache 2.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 5, 2004 - 21:41 : Anonymous
I fixed it very simply by adding the line:
session_set_cookie_params(0, "/dev/null");
immediately before the call to session_start(). This causes the cookie
that PHP sets to only apply to the path "/dev/null" which, of course,
doesn't exist. Thus, the cookie that Drupal's setcookie() call sets,
with a path of "/", is held on to by the browser, and Drupal goes back
to its old behaviour. It's a hack, but it works.
A better long-term solution would be for Drupal to use the
session_set_cookie_params() call to set the expiry time, rather than
its own call to setcookie().
Tim Bates
------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 6, 2004 - 12:37 : bertboerland at www.drop.org
I am sorry to say, that adding a line like that in user.module doesnt do
the trick for me (running php 4.2.3/drupal 4.). Can it be that this
might work under certain conditions which differ from mine? Anyone else
still working on this *critical* bug?
I am not changing the status but I think it should still read "active"?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 8, 2004 - 03:58 : bertboerland at www.drop.org
never mind my previous remark...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 9, 2004 - 20:53 : moshe weitzman
perhaps someone will take interest in this bug. i hope not to release
another drupal version without 'remember me'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 13, 2004 - 16:49 : seanr
This used to work for me. Now I hear it's been completely disabled.
Why? I'd rather have a feature that works for most users and not some
than not have the feature at all.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 22, 2004 - 11:39 : Anonymous
We dropped the whole 'remember me' posiibility in drupal 4.5. If it is -
strategically seen - a good move, is another story, but now marked this
as "Won't fix".
------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 22, 2004 - 15:35 : moshe weitzman
umm - thanks 'anonymous'. this is a valid feature request, even if it
isn't a valid bug anymore. marking as such.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 13, 2004 - 22:45 : jasper
this is a bug actually. If you don't think so, you really aren't
thinking about user experience.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 19, 2004 - 13:48 : jasper
I am having this problem with 4.5. After you login, the cookie that is
set to expire in a month is overwritten by a session cookie, so
remember me doesn;t work.
I "fixed" this by hacking user.module to set its cookie to a
non-existant path. Maybe that will mess something up.
I notice that drupal.org overcomes this by setting the initial cookie
to "host: drupal.org" and the second cookie to "domain: .drupal.org"
Where is this documented? How do you do that?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 21, 2004 - 11:43 : Anonymous
I was having the same problem. I changed user.module's call to
setcookie() so that the cookie would expire after 2000000 seconds. That
fixed it for me. Now I don't have to login every time I visit. I hope I
didn't break anything else, though.
setcookie(session_name(), session_id(), FALSE, $path);
becomes:
setcookie(session_name(), session_id(), time() + 2000000, $path);
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 21, 2004 - 22:03 : dtan
Ya, suddenly noticed that I had to login everytime . . . not a huge
deal, but is a bit of a pain. Should this be a configurable option
for the site?? Obviously from the length of this issue, people feel it
is a useful feature. . .
dtan
------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 26, 2004 - 23:32 : tvst
I WANT THIS FEATURE BACK! Sure, there were problems with it -- but let's
fix the bug instead of killing a nice feature.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 3, 2004 - 18:02 : Goba
Dries just committed a patch, which removes that superflous cookie
setting, so session time in upcoming versions will be determined by the
PHP settings, and short lived cookies will not be set.
Until new versions are released, it is completely safe to remove the
setcookie line in user.module (and the preg line above that), and it
solves the problem of users needing to login everytime.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 5, 2004 - 01:02 : Anonymous
wow. thanks. this was breaking my sites
------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 14, 2004 - 12:06 : kbahey
This way, the PHP settings are the ones that determine the session
length.
Wouldn't it be better to have an admin option that allows users to set
their session length? with a global default for sessions (e.g. 1 week,
2 weeks, 1 month, ...etc.)
If this option is enabled, then it can be overriden by the user
individually too.
This is a better scheme than having a forced global setting outside
Drupal, on the PHP level for all users.
What do others think?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 3, 2005 - 13:50 : kbahey
Reviving this issue.
The session length should be an option that the administrator, or the
end user can set.
We should not rely on the PHP settings alone.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 11, 2005 - 19:54 : kbahey
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/use-module-session.patch (1.92 KB)
I feel that removing the setcookie() call was not the right thing to do.
Session length should not be relegated to .htaccess or php.ini, but
should be an application feature.
I am attaching a patch that reinstates this functionality via a
configuration option. The sysadmin determines how long visitors should
have their session for, and a cookie is set for them with the
appropriate lifetime.
Please look at this rationally and objectively and do not dismiss it
offhand because 'too many options are bad'.
I had to go through php.ini and .htaccess hell for the last few months
because my hosting company has implemented PHP suExec (hence .htaccess
cannot set php parameters), then moved to another machine with
.htaccess reinstated. This also allows people (like me) who serve
several domains from a single Drupal installation to set the session
length differently for different domains.
Moreover, the Drupal end user should not have to go through fiddling
with .htaccess values to get this functionality back.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 06:51 : Bèr Kessels
-1 for yet another config option.
Thisis a (very) advanced feuature, that will never have to be changed
on a site. Therefore we need to give it a good default, and if people
really want to chage it, those few can do so in conf.php.
Bèr
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 08:57 : Goba
Please *do not use setcookie()* to overwrite the session cookie! The
problem before was that $path and $domain were not the same as set by
the session handler cookie, and so the session handler cookie was not
overwritten. This behaviour depends on host configuration... See, you
introduce a $path variable in your patch, which is not set, and you
don't care about the cookie domain... These were the main problems with
the previous aproach, and this is why the setcookie() was removed. You
should deal directly with the session ini settings!
So please ini_set() the session cookie lifetime, if .htaccess is not
enough for you, and let the session handler set the proper cookie.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 09:59 : kbahey
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/user-module-session-2.patch (8.89 KB)
Getting the sysadmin to tweek the .htaccess or php.ini is a tedious
thing. If we can provide a better interface for them to do this, then
it is better. Every time PHP gets upgraded by my hosting company or
move machines, things do not work.
With this patch, the sysadmin can set how long sessions are valid for.
This version of the patch still overrides the session cookie, but uses
the correct path.
I am seeing reluctance to putting this in CVS, based on 'yet another
option' objection, or it being a cookie.
While I can sympathise with the objections, and see their point of
view, I do not see another solution being proposed to those who asked
for this feature to be brought back. See for example comments 46, 49,
and 54.
Taking away a feature is not a good thing.
I would rather have had this be an end user settable option (a global
default for the site, and a per user settable option).
Until the feature is back with a technical solution that is acceptable
to the powers that be, users can use this patch for CVS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 10:14 : Goba
kbahey, please, what is the problem with setting the ini setting with
ini_set() runtime? It would work without fiddling with the $path and
$domain... Also note that your patch contains a lot of unrelated
changes...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 11:06 : kbahey
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/user-module-session-3.patch (2.04 KB)
Sorry. The patch was for a lot of things by mistake. Here is the patch
only for user.module.
As for ini_set(), I can do:
ini_set ("session.cookie_lifetime", number_of_seconds);
But again, number_of_seconds has to be stored in a varaible, which will
be another option. Will we get the objection "no more options" again?
However, as I understand it, ini_set() has to be called before
session_start() which is the first thing in includes/session.inc. Can
variable_get() be called that early in Drupal life span to get the
stored value?
On a related note, why don't we have the following defaults set in
conf.php, so regardless of .htaccess or php.ini, we ensure they are set
in Drupal no matter what?
ini_set ("session.cache_expire", 200000);
ini_set ("session.gc_maxlifetime", 200000);
ini_set ("session.auto_start", 0);
ini_set ("session.save_handler", "user");
ini_set ("session.cache_limiter", "none");
ini_set ("session.use_trans_sid", 0);
ini_set ("session.use_cookies", 1);
ini_set ("session.use_only_cookies", 1);
This also has the advantage that every domain in a multi-domain
installation can have their own settings, if needed, instead of just
one .htaccess.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 17:15 : Abalieno
Excuse me, I'm one of the less experienced user of Drupal out there.
This problem was HUGE for me because my installation, by default,
remembered the sessions only for 20 minutes, then forcing me to relog.
I've asked on the mailing list, I had peoples trying to register at my
site to figure it out, I asked in other mailing lists. Nothing.
At the end I discovered that it wasn't Drupal but a variable into
php.ini (session.gc_maxlifetime). Noone was able to point me in the
right direction. The last message I received from Mark Quinn is:
"As for your PHP session issue, you may want to try and take it up with
your hosting service, or wait until drupal properly resolves the issue
with an application-managed cookie; I've not yet seen any discussion
patches come through on this, myself. Maybe the Usual Suspects may have
a better idea of whether someone is working on this part of the code, at
present."
At the end I was able to fix this by changing the php.ini. But it was a
pain.
I don't know from where comes the 'design choice' of 'not another
setting'. This is a *basic* feature that on EVERY other engine can be
set in the option.
What is better? Something that you can notice easily in a configuration
page or something that was set by someone else and there's no other way
to change than to hack it yourself because the engine isn't flexible?
"This a (very) advanced feature, that will never have to be changed on
a site."
No, this is a BASIC feature on EVERY engine. In general the users of a
site need to set this by themselves, some want to be anonymous, some
want to log it just once and forget, some want to log in once and
remain logged forever.
Not only this should be an option, but this should be also defined, by
default, in the permissions panel. So that each member can set the
cookie in the preferred way.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 18:47 : kbahey
This is exactly what I mean: we removed a feature and did not provide a
replacement.
My attempt to reintroduce the feature, admittedly having some
drawbacks, was dimissed with no alternative provided.
Can we discuss the alternatives, and implement a solution before 4.6 is
out?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 22:57 : Bèr Kessels
I did provide an alternative, only not in so much words:
Use variable_set("site_cookie_lifetime",200000) and then ini_set to
enforce a correct *default* lifetime.
This will do for 99% ofthe drupal sites and users.
For those 1% that want to control everything: use a setting in
settings.php:
# Variable overrides:
#
# To override specific entries in the 'variable' table for this site,
# set them here. You usually don't need to use this feature. This
is
# useful when used in a configuration file for a vhost or directory,
# rather than the default settings.php. Any configuration setting
from
# the variable table can be given a new value.
#
# $conf = array(
# 'site_name' => 'My Drupal site',
# 'theme_default' => 'pushbutton',
# 'anonymous' => 'Visitor'
# );
Really: I visit a lot of geeky pages everyday, but never, ever have i
even there seen an option to say how long a cookie will live on my HDD.
Let alone on the joe-average site.
We really do not want joe-average to give answers to questions like
"how long should you remain logged in". The machines i.c..w admins
should make that choice for him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 23:19 : Anonymous
To start with the last comment about no sites doing this, Google's own
Gmail has a checkbox that says : "Keep me logged in for two weeks".
Hotmail and Yahoo both have a check box "remember my password on this
computer". Even Slashdot has such an option.
So, it is a fairly common way to do things, and was present in Drupal
but taken away.
Now to the solution:
You say
"Use variable_set("site_cookie_lifetime",200000) and then ini_set to
enforce a correct *default* lifetime.
"
So, we are still going to have an option to set and save the
site_cookie_lifetime. So, I assume that part of the user.module patch
will remain. Good!
Now, for the ini_set() part. I see that it has to be called before
session_start() is called. I asked above where it should go. Should it
go in session.inc? If so, I can add it there, and that would be that.
Regarding the second option: Which variable specifically should be
overriden in the $conf array to achieve this?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 23:20 : kbahey
Oops! That was me. Drupal.org logged me out. Sort of relevant to the
discussion ;-)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 23:32 : Bèr Kessels
to clarify:
an option is:
Session lifetime:
[400000_________]
provide the lifetime of your users sessions in seconds.
A user option for this would be:
username [__________]
password [__________]
session lifetime [__________]
Those are unwanted. Wanted, however is:
* No options in the interface, but in code only!
*
username [__________]
password [__________]
remember [x]
That is my point, and not that we should not have a lifetime in PHP.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 12, 2005 - 23:41 : kbahey
No one suggested that we should give the end user, nor the sysadmin the
number of seconds. Even the patch as it stands today does not do that,
but displays: 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, ....etc.
So, on the login screen, there would be a "remember me" checkbox. Then
in the admin screens there would be an option like the one above for
how long this 'remembering' should be.
If someone answers the last two paragraphs in #69, I can get this done
soon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 13, 2005 - 00:23 : Abalieno
Again I cannot code myself but I think I can provide a good solution.
Why not to add options that are configurable, but just not under the
eyes of everyone?
This system should work this way:
- By default Drupal should do what it does already. Users are
automatically logged in for one month (about 2000000 seconds of the
default option). Not using php.ini or .htaccess but its own cookies.
- Then you add an option and link it to the permission pages.
- The admin of the site will access a special page where he can set:
* The default behaviour of the site for EVERY user. -> One day, one
week , two weeks, a month, three moths, forever.
Depending on this setting the variable will be reset as the standard
option for every new user.
Then, in the case the user is in a usergroup flagged to administer this
option, each user has a new option in the config page of his account:
* For how long you want Drupal to log you in automatically? -> One day,
one week , two weeks, a month, three moths, forever.
* A checkbox to remain anonymous even when logged in.
This makes no option appear on the homepage, it allows Drupal to be
set, by default, in an optimal way that doesn't need to be changed.
But, in the case it's needed, it provides configurable options that
both the admin and each user can set.
Imho, the "remember me" box on the homepage isn't needed. Drupal is ok
how it is already. What it needs is configurable options and
permissions on their own page (the same page where you can set the
timezone).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 13, 2005 - 06:19 : Bèr Kessels
I do no know if it is me that is not clear, or you that cannot
understand me:
I, and might be only me, do *not* want any new config option in the
config screens.
Be it textareas where you can add seconds, or dropdowns where you can
set weeks, days etc.
Why not?
I think this config option is 1) confusing and 2) unnessecary for 99%
of the drupal cases.
On top of that: this is a one-tim setting. On top of thát, it is a
setting only advanced users will want to tweak (the 1%).
So I am suggesting you code whatever you want to code for it, cookies,
init, php.ini settings, whatever. But do /not/ add new config options
in the admin or user screens. People (that 1%) can then set the
variable in settings.php
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 13, 2005 - 07:15 : stefan nagtegaal
I totally agree with Ber on this one.. We already have to much
'setup-once-and-never-change-again' options inside drupal which are
UI-clutter.. This, is in my opinion an option of the same type. You set
this once, and never look at it again.. So, absolutely a -1 to put on
one of the options screens again..
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 13, 2005 - 13:39 : kbahey
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/user-module-session-4.patch (1.27 KB)
Here is a new version of the patch.
There is no configuration option anymore.
The default is set to 30 days where the session cookie is valid for.
This value can be overriden by setting a line for it in the $conf
variable in the settings.php file under the sites directory.
How does that look to others?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 13, 2005 - 13:55 : Goba
How many times should I ask for ini_set()-ing the session cookie
lifetime, and using less code, instead of hacking around with
overwritinng the cookie? Please! Yes, the session.inc code is included
from bootstrap.inc after variable_get and the settings.php file data is
already available! I know this not because I know Drupal code, but
because I just looked into index.php, and followed the includes...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 13, 2005 - 14:10 : kbahey
Attachment: http://drupal.org/files/issues/session-inc.patch (1.11 KB)
Here is the patch using ini_set() for the session.cookie_lifetime
override.
Ber, Stefan, and Goba: do you have any more concerns/objections?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 13, 2005 - 14:17 : Goba
Yes, you have at least one typo in the comment: "by by", plus you don't
need to have one intermediate variable, you can directly include the
return value of variable_get() in the ini_set() call.
Plus since you override the .htaccess setting here, .htaccess needs a
comment in it that the setting is overwritten in the session.inc file.
Or better, the .htaccess setting needs to be commented out and it
should be noted there that this is set programatically. So someone who
changes the .htaccess should not expect the setting to change. This is
crucial to make this stuff be easy to handle from the support viewpoint
later...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 13, 2005 - 14:29 : stefan nagtegaal
Maybe it would also be handy - for codewise cosistency - to use Doxygen
comments....
--
View: http://drupal.org/node/2974
Edit: http://drupal.org/project/comments/add/2974
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