Provided by: libcgi-session-expiresessions-perl_1.13-2_all 
NAME
CGI::Session::ExpireSessions - Expires CGI::Session db-based and file-based sessions
Synopsis
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI::Session::ExpireSessions;
use DBI;
# -----------------------------------------------
my($dbh) = DBI -> connect
(
'dbi:mysql:aussi:127.0.0.1',
'root',
'pass',
{
AutoCommit => 1,
PrintError => 0,
RaiseError => 1,
ShowErrorStatement => 1,
}
);
CGI::Session::ExpireSessions -> new(dbh => $dbh, verbose => 1) -> expire_db_sessions();
CGI::Session::ExpireSessions -> new(temp_dir => '/tmp', verbose => 1) -> expire_file_sessions();
CGI::Session::ExpireSessions -> new(verbose => 1) -> expire_sessions();
# Note: You are strongly urged to use method expire_sessions() (it requires CGI::Session V 4 or later),
# since it does not eval the session data, and hence avoids the security issues of evaling a string
# which comes from outside the program. See examples/expire-set.pl, which contains extensive comments.
Description
"CGI::Session::ExpireSessions" is a pure Perl module.
It deletes "CGI::Session"-type sessions which have passed their use-by date.
It works with "CGI::Session"-type sessions in a database or in disk files, but does not
appear to work with "CGI::Session::PureSQL"-type sessions.
The recommended way to use this module is via method "expire_sessions()", which requires
"CGI::Session" V 4 or later.
Sessions can be expired under one of three conditions:
o You deem the session to be expired as of now
o Methods: "expire_db_sessions()" and "expire_file_sessions()"
You want the session to be expired and hence deleted now because it's last access
time is longer ago than the time you specify in the call to new, using the delta
parameter.
That is, delete the session because the time span, between the "last access" time
and now, is greater than delta.
In other words, force sessions to expire.
The module has always used this condition to delete sessions.
o Method: "expire_sessions()"
You want the session to be expired and hence deleted now because it's "last
access" time is longer ago than the time you specify in the call to new, using the
delta parameter.
o The session has already expired
This section applies to all 3 methods: "expire_db_sessions()",
"expire_file_sessions()" and "expire_sessions()".
This condition is new as of V 1.02.
You want the session to be deleted now because it has already expired.
That is, you want this module to delete the session, rather than getting
"CGI::Session" to delete it, when "CGI::Session" would delete the session
automatically if you used "CGI::Session" to retrieve the session.
Note: This condition assumes the session's expiration time is defined (it does not
have to be).
o The file size is <= 5 bytes and was accessed more than 'delta' seconds ago
This condition is new as of V 1.03.
This section applies to method: "expire_file_sessions()".
See below for how to provide a value of delta to the constructor.
Old versions of "CGI::Session" sometimes create a file of size 0 bytes, so this test
checks for such files, and deletes them if they are old enough.
Sessions are deleted if any of these conditions is true.
Sessions are deleted from the 'sessions' table in the database, or from the temp
directory, depending on how you use "CGI::Session".
Distributions
This module is available both as a Unix-style distro (*.tgz) and an ActiveState-style
distro (*.ppd). The latter is shipped in a *.zip file.
See http://savage.net.au/Perl-modules.html for details.
See http://savage.net.au/Perl-modules/html/installing-a-module.html for help on unpacking
and installing each type of distro.
Security
For file-based sessions, method "expire_file_sessions()" parses the contents of the file,
using eval{}, in an attempt to determine the access and expiration times recorded within
the file.
So, if you are uneasy about the security implication of this (as you should be), don't use
this method. Use method "expire_sessions()" instead. The latter is a much more
sophisticated way of expiring sessions, but it does require "CGI::Session" V 4 or later.
Constructor and initialization
new(...) returns a "CGI::Session::ExpireSessions" object.
This is the class's contructor.
Usage: CGI::Session::ExpireSessions -> new().
This method takes a set of parameters. Only some of these parameters are mandatory.
For each parameter, call method "new()" as new(param_1 => value_1, param_2 => value_2,
...).
Note: As of V 1.07 of this module, you may call method "set()" to set parameters after
calling method "new()".
Not only that, but you may pass into all of the 3 methods "expire_db_sessions()",
"expire_file_sessions()" and "expire_sessions()" any of the parameters accepted by
"new()", since these 3 methods call "set()" if their caller provides parameters.
Parameters which can be used with "new()", "set()", or "expire_*()":
o cgi_session_dsn
This is the DSN (Data Source Name) used by "CGI::Session" to control what type of
sessions you previously created and what type of sessions you now wish to expire.
Do not confuse this with the DSN used by "CGI::Session"'s method find(param_1, \&sub,
{DataSource => other_dsn...}, ...) when referring to db-based sessions.
Method "expire_sessions()" is the only method in this module which uses this
parameter.
So, when you call "expire_sessions()", this parameter - cgi_session_dsn - determines
the set of sessions processed by, and possibly expired by, the call to
"expire_sessions()".
The default value is undef, which means "CGI::Session" defaults to file-based
sessions.
This parameter is optional for file-based sessions, and mandatory for db-based
sessions.
o dbh
This is a database handle for the database containing the table 'sessions'.
Either this parameter is mandatory, or the temp_dir parameter is mandatory.
o delta
o Methods: "expire_db_sessions()" and "expire_file_sessions()"
This is the number of seconds since the "last access" to the session, which
determines whether or not the session will be expired.
o Method: "expire_sessions()"
This is the number of seconds since the "last access" time of the session, which
determines whether or not the session will be expired.
The default value is 2 * 24 * 60 * 60, which is the number of seconds in 2 days.
By default, then, sessions which were last accessed more than 2 days ago are expired.
This parameter is optional.
o dsn_args
If your cgi_session_dsn uses file-based storage, then this hashref might contain keys
such as:
{
Directory => Value 1,
NoFlock => Value 2,
UMask => Value 3
}
If your cgi_session_dsn uses db-based storage, then this hashref contains (up to) 3
keys, and looks like:
{
DataSource => Value 1,
User => Value 2,
Password => Value 3
}
These 3 form the DSN, username and password used by DBI to control access to your
database server, and hence are only relevant when using db-based sessions.
Method "expire_sessions()" is the only method in this module which uses the parameter
dsn_args.
The default value for this parameter is undef.
These parameters are optional for file-based sessions, and mandatory for db-based
sessions.
o table_name
This is the name of the database table used to hold the sessions.
The default value is 'sessions'.
This parameter is optional.
o temp_dir
This is the name of the temp directory where you store CGI::Session-type session
files.
The default value is '/tmp'.
Either this parameter is mandatory, or the dbh parameter is mandatory.
o time
The session's "last access" time is subtracted from the value of this parameter, and
if the result is greater than or equal to the value of parameter 'delta', then the
session is expired.
Method "expire_sessions()" is the only method in this module which uses this
parameter.
The default value is obtained by calling time().
This parameter is optional.
o verbose
This is a integer, 0 or 1, which - when set to 1 - causes progress messages to be
written to STDOUT.
The default value is 0.
This parameter is optional.
Method: expire_db_sessions()
Returns nothing.
This method uses the dbh parameter passed to "new()" to delete database-type sessions.
Method: expire_file_sessions()
Returns nothing.
This method uses the temp_dir parameter passed to "new()" to delete file-type sessions.
Method: expire_sessions()
Return value:
o undef
Returns undef if your version of "CGI::Session" does not support method "find()".
Also, returns undef when "CGI::Session"'s method "find()" failed for some reason.
o 1 Returns 1 when "find()" succeeds.
Returns the result of calling CGI::Session's method find(), which will be undef for some
sort of failure, and 1 for success.
This method handles both file-based and db-based sessions.
Example code
See the examples/ directory in the distro.
There are 2 demo programs: expire-sessions.pl and expire-set.pl.
Author
"CGI::Session::ExpireSessions" was written by Ron Savage <ron@savage.net.au> in 2004.
Home page: http://savage.net.au/index.html
Copyright
Australian copyright (c) 2004, Ron Savage. All Programs of mine are 'OSI Certified
Open Source Software'; you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms
of The Artistic License, a copy of which is available at:
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html