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php start_session() isnt working for localhost

Answer 1

+4 A:

Sessions in PHP are based on a cookie (to transmit the session_id).

Cookies are sent as HTTP headers.

HTTP headers can only be sent if no output has already been sent.

The error message you're getting indicates that the session cookie cannot be sent because some output has already been sent.

Which means you must be sure not to send any ouput (not even one white-space !) before calling session_start().

A couple of ideas :

make sure there is no blank line before the opening php tag
make sure your PHP script is not encoded in UTF-8 with a BOM (some editor put that by default at the beginning of the files)
- i.e. re-save your file (as UTF-8, why not), without a BOM

As a sidenote : you might get this error on some servers, and not on some others, because of the configuration of output_buffering : if it's on (it's Off in your php.ini file), PHP will keep some data in memory before sending them -- which means headers can be sent even if a small amount of data seems to have already been sent (In reality, that small amount of data is kept in memory, and not immediatly really sent).

Pascal MARTIN 2009-12-25 18:12:17

I think you mean 'make sure there is no blank line' :-)

richsage 2009-12-25 18:15:24

@richsage : ergh :-D yes, of course ^^ Thanks for your comment :-) (I edited my post to correct that mistake)

Pascal MARTIN 2009-12-25 18:17:49

that did it sweet! :) i have been scratching my head for hours.

cr1ms0n3cho 2009-12-25 18:21:47

@Anthony don't forget to accept the answer if you think it solved your problem ;-)

richsage 2009-12-25 18:25:53

@Anthony : an external help often does wonders ;-)

Pascal MARTIN 2009-12-25 18:27:48

Answer 2

+1 A:

Most likely a character encoding issue (UTF 8 BOM to be precise). Try converting your php source file into UTF-8 with no BOM. Which editor are you using?

code_burgar 2009-12-25 18:12:17

I am using notepad++

cr1ms0n3cho 2009-12-25 18:17:41

Format -> Convert to UTF-8 no BOM :)

code_burgar 2009-12-25 18:20:27

Answer 3

A:

There is also the session.auto_start directive in php.ini (see manual) which will take care of exchanging cookies and setting up the session as soon as PHP sends the HTTP headers. Not as customizable, but it's the least-distance solution.

amphetamachine 2009-12-25 19:20:39

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php start_session() isnt working for localhost

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