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

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

Answer 2

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 3

Actually changing the directory of the session.save_path turns garbage collection off. That is why it now works for you. If you want garbage collection you can change the original directory owner to the php user "www-data"

chown www-data /var/lib/php5

In the alternative you can write a garbage collection script for the new directory.

Answer 4

I had this problem with the Symfony framework also, the problem is php does not have permission to the session storage directory. Just change the session save directory to somewhere writable. In Zend Framework Bootstrap config ini:

resources.session.save_path = APPLICATION_PATH "/../data/session"

Answer 5

If you are using PHP 7.0

sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/lib/php/sessions

Answer 6

I've had this issue on OS X 10.8.4 with MAMP, using the first Zend Framework. The directory set for session.save_path in php.ini by default is /Applications/MAMP/tmp/php. I was able to solve it only by deleting everything in that directory.