Zend_Session / Zend_Auth randomly throws Error Message ps_files_cleanup_dir: opendir(/var/lib/php5) failed: Permission denied (13)

Question

I'm currently working on a new Application using (among other things) Zend_Auth but, for whatever reason, this Error Message is showing up at any location totally randomly (or so it seams)

Zend_Session::start() - /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Session.php(Line:480): Error #8 session_start() [function.session-start]: ps_files_cleanup_dir: opendir(/var/lib/php5) failed: Permission denied (13) Array

• #0 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Session/Namespace.php(143): Zend_Session::start(true)
• #1 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Auth/Storage/Session.php(87): Zend_Session_Namespace->__construct('Zend_Auth')
• #2 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Auth.php(91): Zend_Auth_Storage_Session->__construct()
• #3 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Auth.php(141): Zend_Auth->getStorage()
• #4 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/xxxxxxx/application/controllers/AdminController.php(10): Zend_Auth->hasIdentity()
• #5 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Controller/Action.php(133): AdminController->init()
• #6 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Controller/Dispatcher/Standard.php(262): Zend_Controller_Action->__construct(Object(Zend_Controller_Request_Http), Object(Zend_Controller_Response_Http), Array)
• #7 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Controller/Front.php(954): Zend_Controller_Dispatcher_Standard->dispatch(Object(Zend_Controller_Request_Http), Object(Zend_Controller_Response_Http))
• #8 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/Bootstrap.php(97): Zend_Controller_Front->dispatch()
• #9 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/library/Zend/Application.php(366): Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap->run()
• #10 /home/hannes/workspace/develop/xxxxxxx/public/index.php(26): Zend_Application->run()
• #11 {main}

Answer 1

Apparently this issue is affecting mostly (only?) debian/ubuntu based systems and has to do with automatic session garbage collection.

The variable session.gc_probability was set to 1 in the php.ini which means there is a 1% probability for the garbage collector to run and clean up the directory /var/lib/php5 where the php sessions are stored.

Apparently this folder is not writable by www-data resulting in the mentioned error and throwing the Zend exception. Setting session.gc_probability to 0 solved the problem. The session folder is cleaned up by a cron job anyway, so no need for the php garbage collector to even run.

From http://somethingemporium.com/2007/06/obscure-error-with-php5-on-debian-ubuntu-session-phpini-garbage

Answer 2

A solution is to set the session.save_path in the php.ini file to a writable directory. for example: session.save_path = "/tmp". Switching the session garbage collection off in the first example is not a good idea. The second example does not work on Ubuntu 10.04