PHP sessions default timeout

Question

Do PHP sessions timeout by default - ie without any coding on my part would a user eventually be "logged out" after some time of inactivity?

Thanks for all those. I wanted a little more straight forward answer hence the question! - upvoted — KB., Mar 28 '12 at 09:06
Amusing how all the answers mention "20 minutes" and "1440 seconds" and no one bothered to notice that 1440 seconds is in fact 24 minutes. — maligree, Jul 09 '12 at 08:55

score 138 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 26 '18 at 16:25

138

It depends on the server configuration or the relevant directives session.gc_maxlifetime in php.ini.

Typically the default is 24 minutes (1440 seconds), but your webhost may have altered the default to something else.

edited Feb 26 '18 at 16:25

AbraCadaver

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answered Mar 28 '12 at 08:58

Niet the Dark Absol

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Would like to know why 1440 sec are default? ... https://stackoverflow.com/a/37176824/57091 – robsch Apr 12 '18 at 14:20
2

Is it 1440 seconds after creation or after last activity ? – Accountant م Aug 28 '19 at 01:51
switch to 10800 (3h), connect, no activity during more than 2 hours, then test with click a link… it works – bcag2 Jul 19 '23 at 14:18

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited May 04 '13 at 09:19

20

You can change it in you php-configuration on your webserver. Search in php.ini for

session.gc_maxlifetime() The value is set in Seconds.

edited May 04 '13 at 09:19

answered Mar 28 '12 at 08:59

suther

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haltabush · Answer 3 · 2013-05-13T14:09:49.203

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Yes, that's usually happens after 1440s (24 minutes)

edited May 13 '13 at 14:09

answered Mar 28 '12 at 08:54

haltabush

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@Mani When is 1440 seconds 20 minutes? – kojow7 Sep 18 '17 at 21:11

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 09 '15 at 13:52

6

http://php.net/session.gc-maxlifetime

session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440
(1440 seconds = 24 minutes)

answered Jul 09 '15 at 13:52

Elangovan

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score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 06 '17 at 09:51

You can set the session time out in php.ini. The default value is 1440 seconds

session.gc_maxlifetime = 1440

; NOTE: If you are using the subdirectory option for storing session files
;       (see session.save_path above), then garbage collection does *not*
;       happen automatically.  You will need to do your own garbage
;       collection through a shell script, cron entry, or some other method.
;       For example, the following script would is the equivalent of
;       setting session.gc_maxlifetime to 1440 (1440 seconds = 24 minutes):
;          find /path/to/sessions -cmin +24 -type f | xargs rm

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 28 '12 at 08:54

5

Yes typically, a session will end after 20 minutes in PHP.

answered Mar 28 '12 at 08:54

Jeroen

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Do you mean 20 minutes of inactivity ?? or even if the user is active and keeping some sort of requests tot he site will the session expire ? – rammanoj Oct 07 '18 at 04:03
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@rammanoj 20 minutes of inactivity. – Jeroen Oct 19 '18 at 11:29
1440 seconds is the default which is actually 24 minutes. – Martin James Jan 11 '20 at 11:21

PHP sessions default timeout

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