Strange problem with Cookies

This may happen if you have more than one copy of the browser running.  All your browser instances share the same cookie jar.

Here is my teaching example of a Logout script.  See if this makes sense to you.  If not, please post back and I'll try to help.

best regards, ~Ray

<?php // RAY_logout_example.php
error_reporting(E_ALL);

// MAN PAGE HERE: http://us.php.net/manual/en/book.session.php
// ALWAYS START THE SESSION ON EVERY PAGE
session_start();

// SEE IF THE CLIENT IS ALREADY LOGGED OUT
if (empty($_SESSION["uid"]))
{

// CLIENT IS NOT LOGGED IN
    echo "<br/>YOU ARE NOT LOGGED IN \n";
    echo "<br/>CLICK HERE TO <a href=\"RAY_login_example.php\">LOG IN</a>\n";
    die();
}

// SET THE EXPIRATION FOR COOKIES
define('COOKIE_LIFE', 60*60*24); // A 24-HOUR DAY IN SECONDS ( = 86,400 )
$cookie_expires	= time() - date('Z') - COOKIE_LIFE;

// CLEAR THE INFORMATION FROM THE $_SESSION ARRAY
$_SESSION = array();

// IF THE SESSION IS KEPT IN COOKIE, FORCE SESSION COOKIE TO EXPIRE
if (isset($_COOKIE[session_name()]))
{
    setcookie(session_name(), '', $cookie_expires, '/');
}

// TELL PHP TO ELIMINATE THE SESSION
session_destroy();


// OPTIONAL - CLEAR ALL COOKIES
// foreach ($_COOKIE as $key => $value)
// {
//    setcookie($key, '', $cookie_expires, '/');
// }

// OPTIONAL - REDIRECT TO THE HOME PAGE
// header("Location: /");
// exit;


// GIVE THE CLIENT A LINK TO THE LOGIN
echo "<br/>YOU ARE LOGGED OUT\n";
echo "<br/>CLICK HERE TO <a href=\"RAY_login_example.php\">LOG IN</a>\n";

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Thank's, but didn't work, this is very strange... I must be doing something wrong... I am using the facebook connect (as I am using fb connect and some extra cookies, I would need to kill all cookies), should have any problems as they are all in the same domain, put it fails for some reason...

Thank's all :)

What did you see when you ran this command:

var_dump($_COOKIE);

I see this:

array(3) { ["PHPSESSID"]=> string(32) "4f3995a7cc46b0d2bc7c9cdc28832af1" ["fbs_149865948383849"]=> string(308) "\"access_token=149865948383849|2.nMeKITzS_oQII4iZDtgXzA__.3600.1290733200-698363010|o7M1EoDsoJ0h04nN2baOIfiSy8k&base_domain=daniel.com&expires=1290733200&secret=nzlVtYkyI6jCK7s_cHoktQ__&session_key=2.nMeXMTzS_oQII4iZDtgXzA__.3600.1290733200-698363010&sig=81d6e6fd2528064597f1c518bc508d62&uid=698363010\"" ["conecta_fb"]=> string(11) "iniciado_fb" }

You may find that easier to read if you echo "<pre>"; before the output.  And did you make sure that you have only ONE instance of the browser running?  Then if you run a script to delete the cookies, they will be gone.  

You can use Firefox to see your cookies.  On my implementation, it's something like Tools => Options => Privacy => remove individual cookies.

unset($_COOKIE[$name]); won't help. What you are doing is removing the variable from the server side. Cookies are stored in browser so even if you delete it from the server side on next request the browser will send all those and will be re-created. so you have to ask the browser to remove the cookie from its side.

Removing cookie is bit strange. you have to set the cookie you want to remove with  exactly all the parameters used to set as you set it but with a pre date to remove it. This triggers the removal mechanism in your browser. Now if you do a redirect the any decent browser is supposed to clear the cookie.

@bansidhar: Exactly what I was trying to get across with the code example at ID:34213132.  I do not think all the parameters have to be the same when you remove a cookie.  The name has to be the same, and the expiration has to be in the past, but the other parameters do not seem to matter.

other parameters also need to be the same (learned the hard way ;) ) you can have blank string for the value, but path, domain, secure and httponly parameters have to be the same

couldn't solve problem...

OK, Here are the results of my tests with cookies.  You can set a cookie with an identical name to an existing cookie if the paths are different.  However the browser will only return the cookies that are appropriate for your current path.  It looks like PHPwill find the most precise cookie, so if you have cookies for '/' and for '/xyz' and you are running in the '/xyz' path, you will see the cookie set for '/xyz' in the $_COOKIE array and will not see the cookie for '/'  However if you are running outside of the '/xyz' path you will see the cookie for '/' -- this makes sense.

So if you've gotten cookies set by a specific directory path, you will need to be running a script that is in that directory path to see the cookies, and to unset them.