Just in case you didn’t know, the PHP session module offers many other helpful functions that can be used for obtaining the values of specific parameters, which are included within the set of directives of the php.ini configuration file. However, let me first show you another illustrative example, which displays the name of an active session:

session_start();
echo session_name(); // displays PHPSESSID
// generate new session name
session_name('NEW_SESSION_NAME'); //displays NEW_SESSION_NAME
echo session_name();

As shown in the above script, the name of a session can be obtained by using the “session_name()” function. Very similar to the “session_id()” function that I described a few lines above, this function returns the name of the active session or assigns a new name to it.

After running the previous snippet, the output I get on my browser is the following:

PHPSESSID
NEW_SESSION_NAME

If a new session is started with the same browser or even with a different one, the value returned by the “session_name()” function (without passing any argument to it) will always be “PHPSESSID,” because this is the default session name assigned in the php.ini configuration file.

Right, as you saw, the PHP session module exposes many interesting functions, either for retrieving or manipulating some parameters assigned as default values within the php.ini file. Keeping in mind this concept, join me in the next section to learn how these values can be used (or eventually changed) within your PHP scripts.