Phoenix.pm: Apache::Session::Lock::File under mod_perl

[Scott Walters]

Ahhh, I distinctly remember the 18th time that Apache::Session failed on
Contact Designs. We were sitting in our attorney's office in a downtown
Phoenix highrise, arbitrating with an non-paying client who was alleging
that we didn't have the experience needed to write an e-commerce site,
so they could step out of the contract and use Yahoo! sites, which look
like garbage - this after cating to demand after demand by this client.
Laptop and Ricochet wireless Internet on the confrence table, I prepare
to demonostrate the check out process on another clients site - when
Apache::Session decides that another processes hasn't released the SHM 
lock. 

This is an absolutely true story. Apache::Session caused constant
problems in each of its modes - locking on SHM, locking on a database,
serializing to file, serializing to database, etc. 

I've flamed Apache::Session in this channel before, and I'll do it again.
Use require, flock, and Storable, just like God intended. 

Apache::Session is one of those things that looks cool, but fails
erratically under real-world conditions.  Sorry to be patronizing, but I told 
you so, nanana!

-scott


> 
> 
> Anyone out there using Apache::Session::File and 
> Apache::Session::Lock::File under mod_perl?  The problem I am having is 
> that Apache::Session::Lock::File is aparently not releasing the 
> exclusive lock when the tied hash goes out of scope.  I can get a simple 
> test program to work from the command line, but when I try it under 
> mod_perl, it locks on the tie to the existing session.  If I delete the 
> lock file, it works fine.  Any ideas?
> 
>