On Thu, Nov 2, 2017 at 12:46 PM, Adam Jon Richardson <adamjonr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Thu, Nov 2, 2017 at 12:39 PM, Tedd Sperling <tedd@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> Hi gang: >> >> Normally when I want to start a session, I use -- >> >> <?php session_start(); >> >> — and this has worked for me for years. >> >> Starting last semester, my PHP class started having problems with session >> ID’s. >> >> The problem occurs as follows: >> >> Student “A" runs their code (using session_start() ) and everything works. >> >> Student “B" runs their code (using session_start() ) and the server >> reports "Permission denied (13) in…” — AND displays the exact same session >> ID as the first student (Student A). >> >> Oddly enough, after a while, things work out and the server starts >> generating different session ID's for each student. >> >> Anyone have an ideas as to why this happens? >> >> Keep in mind, that both students have their own separate account on the >> school's server AND they are running their own scripts . Even my scripts >> are not immune to this problem. For example try running my script here: >> >> http://citw.lcc.edu/~sperlt/citw185/examples/session-page1.php >> >> Currently, my script generates: >> >> Warning: session_start(): open(/var/cpanel/php/sessions/ >> ea-php56/sess_qsabg71cg8u6i2dfgpsbmfth74, O_RDWR) failed: Permission >> denied (13) in /home/sperlt/public_html/citw185/examples/session-page1.php >> on line 3 >> >> However, yesterday the script ran without error. >> > > Sometimes this can mean that there are disk space issues. I've had this > issue in the past, and one of the answers on SO (by Haz) suggests the same > thing: > https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4585086/how-can-i- > fix-the-permission-error-when-i-call-session-start > And, as David Goodwin noted on that same SO link, it seems like I also had a garbage collection issue long ago that proved just as unpredictable. If the issue persists, you could always use a custom handler with MySQL or SQLite to circumvent it just to ensure your students can avoid issues until you can figure out the issues. Sometimes I completely purge the tmp directory (or whatever directory is being written to) just to make sure there aren't any file permission issues. Adam