Advanced PHP for Web Professionals

The Contents of Session Files

You can view the actual contents of session variables by looking in the directory specified in the session.save_path setting in your php.ini file. In that directory, you should see a file named something along the lines of “sess_c4a9722c1745304544dc5cc1 b3e08996.” The important part is that the file name begins with “sess_.” The random string of characters after that is the unique identifier that PHP assigns to each session. If you are on a shared site or you have run any sessions in the past, then there may be several files that look like PHP session files. Try to find the one with the timestamp closest to when you accessed the example, but opening any of the files will give you an idea of how the session variables ...