Session files

Squiz Matrix General Discussion
1

We are estimating that we will accumulate appox 100 000 - 120 000 session files per day.


Is there a threshold on the number of session files and performance degradation in Matrix.



Currently in the session_cleanup.sh script the default is to keep session files for 7 days then remove them. If we follow this rule we'll have a large number of session files (800 000+) by the end of the week. This is in our low hit time of year as well.



Is there a recommendation an the length of time to keep session files.



Thanks

2

It depends on the site really. If you haven't got users logging in, then probably something like 12 hours would be safe.


I would also seriously look at using the memcache session handler in 3.20 for this. Then you wouldn't need to clean up session files, sessions are non-blocking, and it'll make your life a lot easier :slight_smile:

3

to clarify,


So a Matrix site running 3.16.10 or similar would not see any side affects (performance degradation) with a large number of session files in the cache dir?



thanks

4

You shouldn't really, no. Session files are access directly using their full path; the system doesn't do any listing or searching of the files.


The biggest problem is that it is difficult to manage lots of files from a system administration point of view. The other danger is that hitting directory size limits or inode usage limits can take the system offline, if PHP can't read/write to the session directory (depends on your filesystem though).