[SOLVED] php session does not persist

php session does not persist

I have a strange situation while trying to make a site work on bluehost for someone. I have built a very simple example to illustrate this. I have two files:

<?php
session_start();

$_SESSION['x'] = 'yes';

var_dump($_SESSION);

and:

<?php

session_start();
var_dump($_SESSION);

now the problem is, when I call the first file I get this: array(1) { ["x"]=> string(3) "yes" }

but if immediately after that I call the second file I get this: array(0) { }

So, the session doesn't seem to persist between calls. Any idea what might cause this?

the phpinfo session settings are:

Session Support enabled
Registered save handlers    files user
Registered serializer handlers  php php_binary wddx

Directive   Local Value Master Value
session.auto_start  Off Off
session.cache_expire    180 180
session.cache_limiter   nocache nocache
session.cookie_domain   no value    no value
session.cookie_httponly Off Off
session.cookie_lifetime 0   0
session.cookie_path /   /
session.cookie_secure   Off Off
session.entropy_file    no value    no value
session.entropy_length  0   0
session.gc_divisor  1000    1000
session.gc_maxlifetime  1440    1440
session.gc_probability  1   1
session.hash_bits_per_character 4   4
session.hash_function   0   0
session.name    PHPSESSID   PHPSESSID
session.referer_check   no value    no value
session.save_handler    files   files
session.save_path   /tmp    /tmp
session.serialize_handler   php php
session.upload_progress.cleanup On  On
session.upload_progress.enabled On  On
session.upload_progress.freq    1%  1%
session.upload_progress.min_freq    1   1
session.upload_progress.name    PHP_SESSION_UPLOAD_PROGRESS     PHP_SESSION_UPLOAD_PROGRESS
session.upload_progress.prefix  upload_progress_    upload_progress_
session.use_cookies On  On
session.use_only_cookies    On  On
session.use_trans_sid   0   0

Solution

It might help others... The hosting provider is BlueHost and after a few emails back and forth, in which they blamed the development, they admitted it might be because of Varnish, which they have enabled by default with Wordpress optimized packages. https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/turn_varnish_off

After turning it off, the session and cookies seem to work