size of table GDN_Session

udovdh

Hello,

Is GDN-Session supposed to grow and grow?
Can we prune this table?
Or is it automagic?

Kind regards,
Udo

Linc

@udovdh You can safely prune the table. Deleting recent entries could log some folks out, but that's the worst that could happen.

udovdh

What SQL does work to delete records with a modification date one month ago?

R_J

When you use a tool like phpMyAdmin and you delete one line with the GUI, you'll see the SQL it uses to delete that row:

DELETE FROM `GDN_Session` WHERE...

Simply alter that to

DELETE FROM `GDN_Session` WHERE `DateUpdated` < '2014-10-30';

udovdh

Thanks, this appears to work!

x00

@Linc said:
udovdh You can safely prune the table. Deleting recent entries could log some folks out, but that's the worst that could happen.

It shouldn't.

Gnd_Session has to do with stashing of values. It is nothing to do with authentication, which is HMAC. The concept of using HMAC is you don't store the authentication session anywhere on the sever, so it couldn't be jack-potted that way.

Also it reinforces the idea of the stateless protocol. There really is no such thing as being "logged in". Session only exist so long as you have the credentials, it won't rely on a reference in the database.

What would log everyone out would be to change salt, etc.

Stash is rarely used for stashing more than a between a single request, maybe a handful of request. So you could aggressively prune it.

Also consider that stash SessionID is not goign persist for longer than the actual cookie associated with it, which is not the same as the authentication cookie.

The authentication cookie name is Vanilla (you can change it). Only if Stash is being used will you have another cookie VanillaSessionID. Stash is able to work for guest also, it depends how you use it.