APC user cache entries not expiring

Question

I see 5 output each time when I run this code:

<?php
$v = 5;
apc_store('vwxyz',$v,3);
$before = apc_fetch('vwxyz');
sleep(5);
$after = apc_fetch('vwxyz'); //should be false
echo $before;
echo "<br>";
echo $after;
$later = apc_fetch('vwxyz'); //OK this should definitely be false
echo "<br>";
echo $later;

Shouldn't the cached entry be cleared from the cache and return false to apc_fetch()? The user_ttl setting is 2 for APC. I'm still trying to figure out what user_ttl does (the documentation is quite cryptic).

Answer 1

From the manual:

Time To Live; store var in the cache for ttl seconds. After the ttl has passed, the stored variable will be expunged from the cache (on the next request). If no ttl is supplied (or if the ttl is 0), the value will persist until it is removed from the cache manually, or otherwise fails to exist in the cache (clear, restart, etc.).

So it says that the item gets removed from the cache after the TTL on the next request. So the item isn't removed from cache until your next request which is why you keep getting 5.