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24 <div id="page-content">
25 <div id="preamble"><h1>Apache Module mod_session</h1>
27 <p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/mod/mod_session.html" title="English"> en </a></p>
29 <table class="module"><tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Session support</td></tr>
30 <tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#Status">Status:</a></th><td>Extension</td></tr>
31 <tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#ModuleIdentifier">Module Identifier:</a></th><td>session_module</td></tr>
32 <tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#SourceFile">Source File:</a></th><td>mod_session.c</td></tr>
33 <tr><th><a href="module-dict.html#Compatibility">Compatibility:</a></th><td>Available in Apache 2.3 and later</td></tr></table>
36 <div class="warning"><h3>Warning</h3>
37 <p>The session modules make use of HTTP cookies, and as such can fall
38 victim to Cross Site Scripting attacks, or expose potentially private
39 information to clients. Please ensure that the relevant risks have
40 been taken into account before enabling the session functionality on
44 <p>This module provides support for a server wide per user session
45 interface. Sessions can be used for keeping track of whether a user
46 has been logged in, or for other per user information that should
47 be kept available across requests.</p>
49 <p>Sessions may be stored on the server, or may be stored on the
50 browser. Sessions may also be optionally encrypted for added security.
51 These features are divided into several modules in addition to
52 <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session.html">mod_session</a></code>; <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_crypto.html">mod_session_crypto</a></code>,
53 <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_cookie.html">mod_session_cookie</a></code> and <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_dbd.html">mod_session_dbd</a></code>.
54 Depending on the server requirements, load the appropriate modules
55 into the server (either statically at compile time or dynamically
56 via the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_so.html#loadmodule">LoadModule</a></code> directive).</p>
58 <p>Sessions may be manipulated from other modules that depend on the
59 session, or the session may be read from and written to using
60 environment variables and HTTP headers, as appropriate.</p>
63 <div id="quickview"><h3 class="directives">Directives</h3>
65 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#session">Session</a></li>
66 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#sessionenv">SessionEnv</a></li>
67 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#sessionexclude">SessionExclude</a></li>
68 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#sessionheader">SessionHeader</a></li>
69 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#sessioninclude">SessionInclude</a></li>
70 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#sessionmaxage">SessionMaxAge</a></li>
74 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#whatisasession">What is a session?</a></li>
75 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#whocanuseasession">Who can use a session?</a></li>
76 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#serversession">Keeping sessions on the server</a></li>
77 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#browsersession">Keeping sessions on the browser</a></li>
78 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#basicexamples">Basic Examples</a></li>
79 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#sessionprivacy">Session Privacy</a></li>
80 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#cookieprivacy">Cookie Privacy</a></li>
81 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#authentication">Session Support for Authentication</a></li>
82 <li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#integration">Integrating Sessions with External Applications</a></li>
83 </ul><h3>See also</h3>
85 <li><code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_cookie.html">mod_session_cookie</a></code></li>
86 <li><code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_crypto.html">mod_session_crypto</a></code></li>
87 <li><code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_dbd.html">mod_session_dbd</a></code></li>
88 </ul><ul class="seealso"><li><a href="#comments_section">Comments</a></li></ul></div>
89 <div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
91 <h2><a name="whatisasession" id="whatisasession">What is a session?</a></h2>
92 <p>At the core of the session interface is a table of key and value pairs
93 that are made accessible across browser requests. These pairs can be set
94 to any valid string, as needed by the application making use of the
97 <p>The "session" is a <strong>application/x-www-form-urlencoded</strong>
98 string containing these key value pairs, as defined by the
99 <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/">HTML specification</a>.</p>
101 <p>The session can optionally be encrypted and base64 encoded before
102 being written to the storage mechanism, as defined by the
105 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
106 <div class="section">
107 <h2><a name="whocanuseasession" id="whocanuseasession">Who can use a session?</a></h2>
108 <p>The session interface is primarily developed for the use by other
109 server modules, such as <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_auth_form.html">mod_auth_form</a></code>, however CGI
110 based applications can optionally be granted access to the contents
111 of the session via the HTTP_SESSION environment variable. Sessions
112 have the option to be modified and/or updated by inserting an HTTP
113 response header containing the new session parameters.</p>
115 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
116 <div class="section">
117 <h2><a name="serversession" id="serversession">Keeping sessions on the server</a></h2>
118 <p>Apache can be configured to keep track of per user sessions stored
119 on a particular server or group of servers. This functionality is
120 similar to the sessions available in typical application servers.</p>
122 <p>If configured, sessions are tracked through the use of a session ID that
123 is stored inside a cookie, or extracted from the parameters embedded
124 within the URL query string, as found in a typical GET request.</p>
126 <p>As the contents of the session are stored exclusively on the server,
127 there is an expectation of privacy of the contents of the session. This
128 does have performance and resource implications should a large number
129 of sessions be present, or where a large number of webservers have to
130 share sessions with one another.</p>
132 <p>The <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_dbd.html">mod_session_dbd</a></code> module allows the storage of user
133 sessions within a SQL database via <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_dbd.html">mod_dbd</a></code>.</p>
135 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
136 <div class="section">
137 <h2><a name="browsersession" id="browsersession">Keeping sessions on the browser</a></h2>
138 <p>In high traffic environments where keeping track of a session on a
139 server is too resource intensive or inconvenient, the option exists to store
140 the contents of the session within a cookie on the client browser instead.</p>
142 <p>This has the advantage that minimal resources are required on the
143 server to keep track of sessions, and multiple servers within a server
144 farm have no need to share session information.</p>
146 <p>The contents of the session however are exposed to the client, with a
147 corresponding risk of a loss of privacy. The
148 <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_crypto.html">mod_session_crypto</a></code> module can be configured to encrypt the
149 contents of the session before writing the session to the client.</p>
151 <p>The <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_cookie.html">mod_session_cookie</a></code> allows the storage of user
152 sessions on the browser within an HTTP cookie.</p>
154 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
155 <div class="section">
156 <h2><a name="basicexamples" id="basicexamples">Basic Examples</a></h2>
158 <p>Creating a session is as simple as turning the session on, and deciding
159 where the session will be stored. In this example, the session will be
160 stored on the browser, in a cookie called <code>session</code>.</p>
162 <div class="example"><h3>Browser based session</h3><pre class="prettyprint lang-config">Session On
163 SessionCookieName session path=/</pre>
166 <p>The session is not useful unless it can be written to or read from. The
167 following example shows how values can be injected into the session through
168 the use of a predetermined HTTP response header called
169 <code>X-Replace-Session</code>.</p>
171 <div class="example"><h3>Writing to a session</h3><pre class="prettyprint lang-config">Session On
172 SessionCookieName session path=/
173 SessionHeader X-Replace-Session</pre>
176 <p>The header should contain name value pairs expressed in the same format
177 as a query string in a URL, as in the example below. Setting a key to the
178 empty string has the effect of removing that key from the session.</p>
180 <div class="example"><h3>CGI to write to a session</h3><pre class="prettyprint lang-sh">#!/bin/bash
181 echo "Content-Type: text/plain"
182 echo "X-Replace-Session: key1=foo&key2=&key3=bar"
187 <p>If configured, the session can be read back from the HTTP_SESSION
188 environment variable. By default, the session is kept private, so this
189 has to be explicitly turned on with the
190 <code class="directive"><a href="#sessionenv">SessionEnv</a></code> directive.</p>
192 <div class="example"><h3>Read from a session</h3><pre class="prettyprint lang-config">Session On
194 SessionCookieName session path=/
195 SessionHeader X-Replace-Session</pre>
198 <p>Once read, the CGI variable <code>HTTP_SESSION</code> should contain
199 the value <code>key1=foo&key3=bar</code>.</p>
201 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
202 <div class="section">
203 <h2><a name="sessionprivacy" id="sessionprivacy">Session Privacy</a></h2>
205 <p>Using the "show cookies" feature of your browser, you would have seen
206 a clear text representation of the session. This could potentially be a
207 problem should the end user need to be kept unaware of the contents of
208 the session, or where a third party could gain unauthorised access to the
209 data within the session.</p>
211 <p>The contents of the session can be optionally encrypted before being
212 placed on the browser using the <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_crypto.html">mod_session_crypto</a></code>
215 <div class="example"><h3>Browser based encrypted session</h3><pre class="prettyprint lang-config">Session On
216 SessionCryptoPassphrase secret
217 SessionCookieName session path=/</pre>
220 <p>The session will be automatically decrypted on load, and encrypted on
221 save by Apache, the underlying application using the session need have
222 no knowledge that encryption is taking place.</p>
224 <p>Sessions stored on the server rather than on the browser can also be
225 encrypted as needed, offering privacy where potentially sensitive
226 information is being shared between webservers in a server farm using
227 the <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_dbd.html">mod_session_dbd</a></code> module.</p>
229 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
230 <div class="section">
231 <h2><a name="cookieprivacy" id="cookieprivacy">Cookie Privacy</a></h2>
233 <p>The HTTP cookie mechanism also offers privacy features, such as the
234 ability to restrict cookie transport to SSL protected pages only, or
235 to prevent browser based javascript from gaining access to the contents
238 <div class="warning"><h3>Warning</h3>
239 <p>Some of the HTTP cookie privacy features are either non-standard, or
240 are not implemented consistently across browsers. The session modules
241 allow you to set cookie parameters, but it makes no guarantee that privacy
242 will be respected by the browser. If security is a concern, use the
243 <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_crypto.html">mod_session_crypto</a></code> to encrypt the contents of the session,
244 or store the session on the server using the <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session_dbd.html">mod_session_dbd</a></code>
248 <p>Standard cookie parameters can be specified after the name of the cookie,
249 as in the example below.</p>
251 <div class="example"><h3>Setting cookie parameters</h3><pre class="prettyprint lang-config">Session On
252 SessionCryptoPassphrase secret
253 SessionCookieName session path=/private;domain=example.com;httponly;secure;</pre>
256 <p>In cases where the Apache server forms the frontend for backend origin servers,
257 it is possible to have the session cookies removed from the incoming HTTP headers using
258 the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_session_cookie.html#sessioncookieremove">SessionCookieRemove</a></code> directive.
259 This keeps the contents of the session cookies from becoming accessible from the
263 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
264 <div class="section">
265 <h2><a name="authentication" id="authentication">Session Support for Authentication</a></h2>
267 <p>As is possible within many application servers, authentication modules can use
268 a session for storing the username and password after login. The
269 <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_auth_form.html">mod_auth_form</a></code> saves the user's login name and password within
272 <div class="example"><h3>Form based authentication</h3><pre class="prettyprint lang-config">Session On
273 SessionCryptoPassphrase secret
274 SessionCookieName session path=/
275 AuthFormProvider file
276 AuthUserFile conf/passwd
282 <p>See the <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_auth_form.html">mod_auth_form</a></code> module for documentation and complete
285 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
286 <div class="section">
287 <h2><a name="integration" id="integration">Integrating Sessions with External Applications</a></h2>
289 <p>In order for sessions to be useful, it must be possible to share the contents
290 of a session with external applications, and it must be possible for an
291 external application to write a session of its own.</p>
293 <p> A typical example might be an application that changes a user's password set by
294 <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_auth_form.html">mod_auth_form</a></code>. This application would need to read the current
295 username and password from the session, make the required changes to the user's
296 password, and then write the new password to the session in order to provide a
297 seamless transition to the new password.</p>
299 <p>A second example might involve an application that registers a new user for
300 the first time. When registration is complete, the username and password is
301 written to the session, providing a seamless transition to being logged in.</p>
304 <dt>Apache modules</dt>
305 <dd>Modules within the server that need access to the session can use the
306 <strong>mod_session.h</strong> API in order to read from and write to the
307 session. This mechanism is used by modules like <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_auth_form.html">mod_auth_form</a></code>.
310 <dt>CGI programs and scripting languages</dt>
311 <dd>Applications that run within the webserver can optionally retrieve the
312 value of the session from the <strong>HTTP_SESSION</strong> environment
313 variable. The session should be encoded as a
314 <strong>application/x-www-form-urlencoded</strong> string as described by the
315 <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/">HTML specification</a>. The environment
316 variable is controlled by the setting of the
317 <code class="directive"><a href="#sessionenv">SessionEnv</a></code> directive. The session
318 can be written to by the script by returning a
319 <strong>application/x-www-form-urlencoded</strong> response header with a name
320 set by the <code class="directive"><a href="#sessionheader">SessionHeader</a></code>
321 directive. In both cases, any encryption or decryption, and the reading the
322 session from or writing the session to the chosen storage mechanism is handled
323 by the <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session.html">mod_session</a></code> modules and corresponding configuration.
326 <dt>Applications behind <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_proxy.html">mod_proxy</a></code></dt>
327 <dd>If the <code class="directive"><a href="#sessionheader">SessionHeader</a></code>
328 directive is used to define an HTTP request header, the session, encoded as
329 a <strong>application/x-www-form-urlencoded</strong> string, will be made
330 available to the application. If the same header is provided in the response,
331 the value of this response header will be used to replace the session. As
332 above, any encryption or decryption, and the reading the session from or
333 writing the session to the chosen storage mechanism is handled by the
334 <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_session.html">mod_session</a></code> modules and corresponding configuration.</dd>
336 <dt>Standalone applications</dt>
337 <dd>Applications might choose to manipulate the session outside the control
338 of the Apache HTTP server. In this case, it is the responsibility of the
339 application to read the session from the chosen storage mechanism,
340 decrypt the session, update the session, encrypt the session and write
341 the session to the chosen storage mechanism, as appropriate.</dd>
345 <div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
346 <div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="Session" id="Session">Session</a> <a name="session" id="session">Directive</a></h2>
347 <table class="directive">
348 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Enables a session for the current directory or location</td></tr>
349 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>Session On|Off</code></td></tr>
350 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>Session Off</code></td></tr>
351 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Context">Context:</a></th><td>server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess</td></tr>
352 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Override">Override:</a></th><td>AuthConfig</td></tr>
353 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Status">Status:</a></th><td>Extension</td></tr>
354 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Module">Module:</a></th><td>mod_session</td></tr>
356 <p>The <code class="directive">Session</code> directive enables a session for the
357 directory or location container. Further directives control where the
358 session will be stored and how privacy is maintained.</p>
361 <div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
362 <div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="SessionEnv" id="SessionEnv">SessionEnv</a> <a name="sessionenv" id="sessionenv">Directive</a></h2>
363 <table class="directive">
364 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Control whether the contents of the session are written to the
365 <var>HTTP_SESSION</var> environment variable</td></tr>
366 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>SessionEnv On|Off</code></td></tr>
367 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>SessionEnv Off</code></td></tr>
368 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Context">Context:</a></th><td>server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess</td></tr>
369 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Override">Override:</a></th><td>AuthConfig</td></tr>
370 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Status">Status:</a></th><td>Extension</td></tr>
371 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Module">Module:</a></th><td>mod_session</td></tr>
373 <p>If set to <var>On</var>, the <code class="directive">SessionEnv</code> directive
374 causes the contents of the session to be written to a CGI environment
375 variable called <var>HTTP_SESSION</var>.</p>
377 <p>The string is written in the URL query format, for example:</p>
379 <div class="example"><p><code>
380 <code>key1=foo&key3=bar</code>
385 <div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
386 <div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="SessionExclude" id="SessionExclude">SessionExclude</a> <a name="sessionexclude" id="sessionexclude">Directive</a></h2>
387 <table class="directive">
388 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Define URL prefixes for which a session is ignored</td></tr>
389 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>SessionExclude <var>path</var></code></td></tr>
390 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>none</code></td></tr>
391 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Context">Context:</a></th><td>server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess</td></tr>
392 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Status">Status:</a></th><td>Extension</td></tr>
393 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Module">Module:</a></th><td>mod_session</td></tr>
395 <p>The <code class="directive">SessionExclude</code> directive allows sessions to
396 be disabled relative to URL prefixes only. This can be used to make a
397 website more efficient, by targeting a more precise URL space for which
398 a session should be maintained. By default, all URLs within the directory
399 or location are included in the session. The
400 <code class="directive"><a href="#sessionexclude">SessionExclude</a></code> directive takes
402 <code class="directive"><a href="#sessioninclude">SessionInclude</a></code> directive.</p>
404 <div class="warning"><h3>Warning</h3>
405 <p>This directive has a similar purpose to the <var>path</var> attribute
406 in HTTP cookies, but should not be confused with this attribute. This
407 directive does not set the <var>path</var> attribute, which must be
408 configured separately.</p></div>
411 <div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
412 <div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="SessionHeader" id="SessionHeader">SessionHeader</a> <a name="sessionheader" id="sessionheader">Directive</a></h2>
413 <table class="directive">
414 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Import session updates from a given HTTP response header</td></tr>
415 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>SessionHeader <var>header</var></code></td></tr>
416 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>none</code></td></tr>
417 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Context">Context:</a></th><td>server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess</td></tr>
418 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Override">Override:</a></th><td>AuthConfig</td></tr>
419 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Status">Status:</a></th><td>Extension</td></tr>
420 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Module">Module:</a></th><td>mod_session</td></tr>
422 <p>The <code class="directive">SessionHeader</code> directive defines the name of an
423 HTTP response header which, if present, will be parsed and written to the
426 <p>The header value is expected to be in the URL query format, for example:</p>
428 <div class="example"><p><code>
429 <code>key1=foo&key2=&key3=bar</code>
432 <p>Where a key is set to the empty string, that key will be removed from the
437 <div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
438 <div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="SessionInclude" id="SessionInclude">SessionInclude</a> <a name="sessioninclude" id="sessioninclude">Directive</a></h2>
439 <table class="directive">
440 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Define URL prefixes for which a session is valid</td></tr>
441 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>SessionInclude <var>path</var></code></td></tr>
442 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>all URLs</code></td></tr>
443 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Context">Context:</a></th><td>server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess</td></tr>
444 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Override">Override:</a></th><td>AuthConfig</td></tr>
445 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Status">Status:</a></th><td>Extension</td></tr>
446 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Module">Module:</a></th><td>mod_session</td></tr>
448 <p>The <code class="directive">SessionInclude</code> directive allows sessions to
449 be made valid for specific URL prefixes only. This can be used to make a
450 website more efficient, by targeting a more precise URL space for which
451 a session should be maintained. By default, all URLs within the directory
452 or location are included in the session.</p>
454 <div class="warning"><h3>Warning</h3>
455 <p>This directive has a similar purpose to the <var>path</var> attribute
456 in HTTP cookies, but should not be confused with this attribute. This
457 directive does not set the <var>path</var> attribute, which must be
458 configured separately.</p></div>
461 <div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../images/up.gif" /></a></div>
462 <div class="directive-section"><h2><a name="SessionMaxAge" id="SessionMaxAge">SessionMaxAge</a> <a name="sessionmaxage" id="sessionmaxage">Directive</a></h2>
463 <table class="directive">
464 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Description">Description:</a></th><td>Define a maximum age in seconds for a session</td></tr>
465 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax">Syntax:</a></th><td><code>SessionMaxAge <var>maxage</var></code></td></tr>
466 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Default">Default:</a></th><td><code>SessionMaxAge 0</code></td></tr>
467 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Context">Context:</a></th><td>server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess</td></tr>
468 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Override">Override:</a></th><td>AuthConfig</td></tr>
469 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Status">Status:</a></th><td>Extension</td></tr>
470 <tr><th><a href="directive-dict.html#Module">Module:</a></th><td>mod_session</td></tr>
472 <p>The <code class="directive">SessionMaxAge</code> directive defines a time limit
473 for which a session will remain valid. When a session is saved, this time
474 limit is reset and an existing session can be continued. If a session
475 becomes older than this limit without a request to the server to refresh
476 the session, the session will time out and be removed. Where a session is
477 used to stored user login details, this has the effect of logging the user
478 out automatically after the given time.</p>
480 <p>Setting the maxage to zero disables session expiry.</p>
484 <div class="bottomlang">
485 <p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/mod/mod_session.html" title="English"> en </a></p>
486 </div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img src="../images/up.gif" alt="top" /></a></div><div class="section"><h2><a id="comments_section" name="comments_section">Comments</a></h2><div class="warning"><strong>Notice:</strong><br />This is not a Q&A section. Comments placed here should be pointed towards suggestions on improving the documentation or server, and may be removed again by our moderators if they are either implemented or considered invalid/off-topic. Questions on how to manage the Apache HTTP Server should be directed at either our IRC channel, #httpd, on Freenode, or sent to our <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/lists.html">mailing lists</a>.</div>
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