How Can I Effectively Clean Up Accumulating PHP Session Files?

PHP Session File Cleanup

PHP sessions utilize files to store session information, and these files can accumulate over time. The original question raised concerns about a directory containing 145,000 session files, highlighting the need for proper cleanup.

To address this issue, PHP provides several configuration variables that control the garbage collector (GC). These variables are:

• session.gc_probability: Probability of running GC with each page request.
• session.gc_divisor: Divisor of gc_probability (lower value increases probability).
• session.gc_maxlifetime: Maximum inactive lifetime of session files.

By setting these variables, you can specify the parameters for GC operation. For example, to ensure session files are deleted after a specific time period (e.g., 15 seconds), you can set:

ini_set("session.gc_maxlifetime", "15");

However, it's important to note that GC is only triggered upon receiving a request. To further increase the probability of GC running, you can set:

ini_set("session.gc_probability", "1");
ini_set("session.gc_divisor", "1");

For sites without command-line access, using FTP is possible. However, the session files may be owned by a different user. In such cases, you may need to implement a PHP script that periodically calls a cleanup function and run it manually.

Additional Considerations:

To ensure reliable session file deletion, consider the following:

• Ensure you are using the latest PHP version.
• Use session.save_path() to specify an appropriate temp directory.
• Test the GC settings by sending requests to the server.
• Set a realistic GC_MAXLIFETIME to avoid deleting valid session files prematurely.

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