PHP session destroyed / lost after header

Question

I've got a script that sets some session values before redirecting to / using header().

I've read many posts about the $_SESSION variable being destroyed / lost after header(), even after I implemented this:

// set session here

session_regenerate_id(true);
session_write_close();
header("Location: /");

session_start() is set in the correct places, does anyone know of anything that I might be missing?

On the index.php page I have this:

session_start();
print_r($_SESSION);

// outputs nothing :'(

The code is pretty complex so will not post it all, just snippets.

Answer 1

I've never seen any session related issues due to using location headers - are you sure you're calling session_start on both pages?

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Hmm... this answer made a lot more sense before you added the session_start bits above, and mentioned the fact that you were sure you were using session_start. :-)

Answer 2

header must be sent before session close

session_regenerate_id(true);

header("Location: /");
// the header must be sent before session close
session_write_close(); // here you could also use exit();

Answer 3

just put exit; after header :D I solved by this

Answer 4

After the Header redirect you need to exit the PHP script:

header("Location: /");
exit();

Answer 5

In the interest of closing this question, we had concluded it was a problem with the server configuration, not surprising considering the host is well known for this kind of thing.

Answer 6

One possible option that was not mention here and happened to me is that I was creating another session. When you're using session in php you can use only one session at a time. If you create a new session the old one is lost. This is more likely to happen when you create a session for login and maybe you want another session for something else(It's not that recommended anyway). My case was a flash() method which I used to create a session only once a post was added/updated/deleted. And use that session in the views to display a message then destroy it. Every time I created a new session while adding/updating/deleting the other session that I used for login was destroyed. This is not something that happens to often but it's possible.

Answer 7

You don't need to start session_start() in each page. cuz untill your browser is closed the same session remains for the entire path you have specified in php.ini