How to destroy two different sessions in the same php script?

Question

In my session start script, I choose the session_name and then do a session_start.

   $session_name = rand(0,1) ? 'first' : 'second';
   session_name($session_name);
   session_start();

The above code runs on every page load. After a few page loads, there will probably be sessions for both session_name 'first' and session_name 'second'.

This is my code which is in my logout script to try and destroy both these sessions:

session_start();
session_name("first");
session_unset();
session_destroy();
session_write_close();

session_start();
session_name("second");
session_unset();
session_destroy();
session_write_close();

The script above destroys first but not second. If I run the log out script a second time it then destroys the second session, as the first one is already deleted.

How do I destroy sessions for both session names in the same script?

How do you check if the session is destroyed or not? Your codes says, your second session name haven't even applied to your session. — Tᴀʀᴇǫ Mᴀʜᴍᴏᴏᴅ, Dec 16 '15 at 08:09
The original code was my logout script to destroy the sessions. The sessions are started elsewhere originally — Hard worker, Dec 16 '15 at 09:49

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 22 '18 at 11:45

TRY IT

<?php
    session_name("first");
    session_start();
    echo session_status();
    session_destroy();
    echo session_status();

    session_name("second");
    session_start();
    echo session_status();
    session_destroy();
    echo session_status();
?>

I've tested it on xampp and it returns values 2121 meaning session is active, none exist, the session is active, none exist.

I've placed session_name() before session_start() because setting the name as you did doesn't take effect after a session has already been started. I've googled it and it has to do something with the php.ini file where session.auto_start is set to "true".

The explanation and a debate on this topic are found here: http://php.net/manual/en/function.session-name.php - check comments.

EDITED:

After reviewing your edit again, you basically don't create two sessions but only one and it starts with a random name "first" or "second". You can destroy a session but the cookie will remain. I've tested your code on xampp and it does exactly that. First, the PHP starts one session and stores a cookie with a time value of "session", after reloading the page it will load one of two options again but this time it will change the existing cookie time to "N/A". You should search for a solution to clear your cookies on your domain after page loads like so:

<?php
    $session_name = rand(0,1) ? 'first' : 'second';
    session_name($session_name);
    session_start();

    deleteCookies($session_name);

    function deleteCookies($skip_this_one) {
        if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_COOKIE'])) {
        $cookies = explode(';', $_SERVER['HTTP_COOKIE']);
        foreach($cookies as $cookie) {
            $parts = explode('=', $cookie);
            $name = trim($parts[0]);
            if ($name == $skip_this_one) {
                //skip
            }else{
                setcookie($name, '', time()-1000);
                setcookie($name, '', time()-1000, '/');
            }
        }
    }
    //do something inside your session
    //when done, stop the session the way you want
    session_destroy();
}
?>

This will delete all previous cookies and keep the current session open.

This solution is re-written from here: how to delete all cookies of my website in php

Hope this helps :)

Then your question has probably been answered here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10703721/how-delete-session-by-the-name — c00ki3s, Dec 15 '15 at 16:43
That's whole point of my question. Doing that for *two* different sessions in the same script doesn't work. It works fine for one session. — Hard worker, Dec 15 '15 at 16:47
I've tested some code for you and edited my post. Hope it helps :) — c00ki3s, Dec 16 '15 at 08:47

Digpal Singh · Answer 2 · 2015-12-16T09:39:35.367

-1

Please try below code

<?php unset($_SESSION['name']); // will delete just the name data
session_destroy(); // will delete ALL data associated with that user. 
?>

edited Dec 16 '15 at 09:39

answered Dec 16 '15 at 08:51

Digpal Singh

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How to destroy two different sessions in the same php script?

2 Answers2