I'm still having issues with this--see bellow:
Do I need to specify a file as well as a path for session data?
Just a path should be fine.
But, if you're on a hosting service be aware that you might not always be on the same server. You might be on a server farm where /tmp is a different local hard disk on each request.
So you might have to try a directory that's 'persistent', in a filesystem that's shared across servers. There might be a special place for this (like on SourceForge's servers now) or you might have to take over a locked directory in your own web space. Check with the documentation or support for your hosting service if you have to do something like that.
It seems like I'm getting closer--I have my session.save_path in the php.ini file pointing correctly to a directory I have full access too, and I even see files being written there, but in all but one case they are empty (0 bytes). The only file that is not empty was generated from a different application we have using the same server space.
The end result is we're still not able to edit pages while logged in. Mediawiki continues to report a loss of the session data when we try to save edits.
Complete symptoms: I can only edit files if I'm NOT logged in. I can only upload files if I am logged in. I can only stay logged in while changing pages if I check the "Remember me on this computer" box while logging in.
In other words, in appears that no session data is being saved on the server, and/or being retrieved, in spite of the session files being written in the directory specified (there is just no data in there!).
The files being written are in the format "sess_lotsofrandomnumbersandletters" , and permissions are set to -re------ (600). Is that how they should look?
In all but one case, these files are empty (0 bytes). These are from mediawiki. The other file, which was 288 bytes, came from a different php site we have running on the same server account.
What else can I be missing that would be causing a continuous loss of session data?
Environment: This is a fresh install of version 1.10.0 running under PHP Version 5.1.0RC1, The Server API is CGI, and is running on Linux. I'm using a custom php.ini file I can teak to override the defaults. If it helps to figure out the issue, here is a link to pi.php file to see the environment: http://americanpipemakers.info/mediawiki/pi.php
I'm a noob with all this. I love mediawiki, and think it's perfect for my application, but I obviously need to get this nailed down before I can launch the project.
Thanks for trying any help, Scott