ini_set() always returning false

Question

On my current project I have a security.php which holds up, some functions and some ini_set() statements.

ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 0);
ini_set('session.use_only_cookies', 1);
ini_set('session.cookie_secure', 1);
ini_set('session.hash_function', 'whirlpool');
ini_set('session.cookie_httponly', 1);
ini_set('session.hash_bits_per_character', '5');

So here is my problem. If I put some sort of check...

if(ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 0) === false)
    echo "Foo!";

It always returns false, no matter which one I am trying to set. I thought the problem was with the security.php permissions, but I was wrong.

EDIT

var_dump(ini_set('display_errors', '0'));

returns string(0) ""

Any other idea?

Thanks, Sebastian

Remove comma and 0 from if statement. You assigned value there — Shridhar, Mar 07 '13 at 21:35
@Sebastian, interesting question. Can you check if ini_set works with other ini values?... for example: `var_dump(ini_set('display_errors', '0'));` ? — hek2mgl, Mar 07 '13 at 21:37
var_dump(ini_set('display_errors', '0')); returns string(0) "" — Sebastjan, Mar 07 '13 at 21:39
Is ini_set enabled/allowed to use? Can you ini_set anything (e.g. display_errors)? EDIT: If you call ini_get to get the values after ini_set are they not changed? Are you calling session_start() prior to the ini_sets? — Brock Hensley, Mar 07 '13 at 21:38
Tested, ini_get returns the same value before and after "changing". @dirt session is active in the time of changing — Sebastjan, Mar 07 '13 at 22:54

Matt S · Answer 1 · 2016-05-14T16:26:30.300

-3

ini_set always returns a string, so this strict comparison will always be false:

ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 0) === false

If you want to check the value without changing it, use ini_get:

if (ini_get('session.use_trans_sid') == 0) ...

or

if (!ini_get('session.use_trans_sid')) ...

ini_set will set the value and return the previous value.

edited May 14 '16 at 16:26

answered Apr 15 '16 at 19:09

Matt S

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`ini_set` returns false when there is a failure, per the documentation (http://php.net/manual/en/function.ini-set.php#refsect1-function.ini-set-returnvalues). – rich remer Oct 31 '16 at 18:24

ini_set() always returning false

1 Answers1