Dear PHP List,

PHP 5, Apache2, MySQL 5, running on Ubuntu, viewing & deving with
FireFox and Konqueror (Linux).

I am building a site with multiple tools and want to pass variables
throughout them all. Before, I was passing variables using <hidden> HTML
Form tags, but the site has grown too large for this tactic, so I went to
using $_SESSION. However, when I started using $_SESSION, my site loads 3-5
times slower then before. A page that queried MySQL and built itself in 3-5
seconds was now taking 15-20. While more has changed then just $_SESSION,
it is really the only significant difference.

Is $_SESSION slowing down my site? Is there a faster alternative to
global variables then using $_SESSION? Are using regular faster?

Any is appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott

--
Scott Campbell
"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."

"Courage is resistance to fear .. not absence of fear."

On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 12:27 -0400, Scott Campbell wrote:
> Dear PHP List,
>
> PHP 5, Apache2, MySQL 5, running on Ubuntu, viewing & deving with
> FireFox and Konqueror (Linux).
>
> I am building a site with multiple tools and want to pass variables
> throughout them all. Before, I was passing variables using <hidden> HTML
> Form tags, but the site has grown too large for this tactic, so I went to
> using $_SESSION. However, when I started using $_SESSION, my site loads 3-5
> times slower then before. A page that queried MySQL and built itself in 3-5
> seconds was now taking 15-20. While more has changed then just $_SESSION,
> it is really the only significant difference.
>
> Is $_SESSION slowing down my site? Is there a faster alternative to
> global variables then using $_SESSION? Are using regular faster?
>
> Any is appreciated.

How are your sessions implemented? Are you using the stock PHP session
functionality or did you cook your own solution? I can't see the stock
PHP solution adding anything more than a split second to your page time.
The exception being when it performs cleanup. Cleanup should be
relegated to a cron job. Have you added anything new to the database?
new query perhaps on a large table that doesn't make use of indexes?
Small changes can have a bigger impact than large changes depending on
what exactly changed.

Cheers,
Rob.
--
http://www.interjinn.com
Application and Templating Framework for PHP

At 12:34 PM -0400 5/7/08, Robert Cummings wrote:
>
>The exception being when it performs cleanup. Cleanup should be
>relegated to a cron job.

Rob:

What clean-up?

Cheers,

tedd
--
-------
http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com

On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 16:03 -0400, tedd wrote:
> At 12:34 PM -0400 5/7/08, Robert Cummings wrote:
> >
> >The exception being when it performs cleanup. Cleanup should be
> >relegated to a cron job.
>
> Rob:
>
> What clean-up?

All the inactive session files... inactive and garbage collection time
is denoted by the following php.ini settings:

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

Cheers,
Rob.
--
http://www.interjinn.com
Application and Templating Framework for PHP

On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Robert Cummings <robert@interjinn.com>
wrote:

>
> On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 16:03 -0400, tedd wrote:
> > At 12:34 PM -0400 5/7/08, Robert Cummings wrote:
> > >
> > >The exception being when it performs cleanup. Cleanup should be
> > >relegated to a cron job.
> >
> > Rob:
> >
> > What clean-up?
>
> All the inactive session files... inactive and garbage collection time
> is denoted by the following php.ini settings:
>
> 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


so where is the setting, using the stock session handler, to relegate the gc
process to a cron job ?

-nathan

At 4:22 PM -0400 5/7/08, Robert Cummings wrote:
>On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 16:03 -0400, tedd wrote:
>> At 12:34 PM -0400 5/7/08, Robert Cummings wrote:
>> >
>> >The exception being when it performs cleanup. Cleanup should be
>> >relegated to a cron job.
>>
>> Rob:
>>
>> What clean-up?
>
>All the inactive session files... inactive and garbage collection time
>is denoted by the following php.ini settings:
>
>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
>
>Cheers,
>Rob.

Oh, Okay. That's an automatic practice taken from the php.ini
settings. I was thinking that maybe one was supposed to do something
after using sessions.

Thanks,

tedd

--
-------
http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com

On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 14:29 -0600, Nathan Nobbe wrote:
> On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Robert Cummings <robert@interjinn.com>
> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 16:03 -0400, tedd wrote:
> > At 12:34 PM -0400 5/7/08, Robert Cummings wrote:
> > >
> > >The exception being when it performs cleanup. Cleanup
> should be
> > >relegated to a cron job.
> >
> > Rob:
> >
> > What clean-up?
>
>
> All the inactive session files... inactive and garbage
> collection time
> is denoted by the following php.ini settings:
>
> 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
>
> so where is the setting, using the stock session handler, to relegate
> the gc process to a cron job ?

session.gc_probability = 0

Then do it yourself in a script called by cron.

Cheers,
Rob.

--
http://www.interjinn.com
Application and Templating Framework for PHP

On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 2:35 PM, Robert Cummings <robert@interjinn.com>
wrote:

>
> On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 14:29 -0600, Nathan Nobbe wrote:
> > On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Robert Cummings <robert@interjinn.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 16:03 -0400, tedd wrote:
> > > At 12:34 PM -0400 5/7/08, Robert Cummings wrote:
> > > >
> > > >The exception being when it performs cleanup. Cleanup
> > should be
> > > >relegated to a cron job.
> > >
> > > Rob:
> > >
> > > What clean-up?
> >
> >
> > All the inactive session files... inactive and garbage
> > collection time
> > is denoted by the following php.ini settings:
> >
> > 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
> >
> > so where is the setting, using the stock session handler, to relegate
> > the gc process to a cron job ?
>
> session.gc_probability = 0
>

but wont it still try to run sometimes since that setting determines whether
or not the gc will run *every* time ? i would imagine if it was for *any*
time, setting session.gc_probability = 0 would effectively disable the stock
gc.

Then do it yourself in a script called by cron.


it would be nice if you could latch into the one they provide out of the box
and just invoke it via cron..

-nathan

> On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 2:35 PM, Robert Cummings <robert@interjinn.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 14:29 -0600, Nathan Nobbe wrote:
>> > On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 2:22 PM, Robert Cummings <robert@interjinn.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 16:03 -0400, tedd wrote:
>> > > At 12:34 PM -0400 5/7/08, Robert Cummings wrote:
>> > > >
>> > > >The exception being when it performs cleanup. Cleanup
>> > should be
>> > > >relegated to a cron job.
>> > >
>> > > Rob:
>> > >
>> > > What clean-up?
>> >
>> >
>> > All the inactive session files... inactive and garbage
>> > collection time
>> > is denoted by the following php.ini settings:
>> >
>> > 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
>> >
>> > so where is the setting, using the stock session handler, to relegate
>> > the gc process to a cron job ?
>>
>> session.gc_probability = 0
>>
>
> but wont it still try to run sometimes since that setting determines
> whether
> or not the gc will run *every* time ? i would imagine if it was for *any*
> time, setting session.gc_probability = 0 would effectively disable the
> stock
> gc.
>

that setting is the chance (in percents) for the stock gc to run at any
request. so if it is set to 0, it does not have a chance
of course it will try but it always decides not to run

greets,
Zoltán Németh

> Then do it yourself in a script called by cron.
>
>
> it would be nice if you could latch into the one they provide out of the
> box
> and just invoke it via cron..
>
> -nathan
>

I can't see PHP sessions slowing down your site by that amount. As
someone said, it should be no more than a split second. If you are
having that much of a problem with them, then I would say it is either
your implementation, or another determining factor.

I would not, personally, stray away from PHP's GC of sessions. I would
imagine that any third-party concoction could not be any faster. I
would however, check to see how long PHP takes to clean up defunct
sessions, and also monitor how many sessions are lying around at any
given time.

Regards,
- Craige