CGI::Se...r::file(3)

💖 NAME 💖

Okay bestie, welcome to CGI::Se...r::file(3) from the User Contributed Perl Documentation — this is the page for CGI::Session::Driver::file, aka the Default CGI::Session driver. Periodt. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

        $s = CGI::Session->new();
        $s = CGI::Session->new("driver:file", $sid);
        $s = CGI::Session->new("driver:file", $sid, {Directory=>'/tmp'});

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

When a CGI::Session object is created without explicitly setting a driver, file is assumed. The file driver stores session data in plain files, and each session gets stored in a separate file. It's giving organized-but-chaotic, honestly. 🗂️

Naming conventions for session files are defined by the $CGI::Session::Driver::file::FileName global variable. Its default value is cgisess_%s, where %s gets replaced with the respective session ID. Slay. ✨

If you wanna set your own FileName template, do it before requesting the session object:

        use CGI::Session::Driver::file; # This line is mandatory.
        # Time passes...
        $CGI::Session::Driver::file::FileName = "%s.dat";
        $s = CGI::Session->new();

For backwards compatibility with 3.x, you can also use the variable name $CGI::Session::File::FileName, which will override the one above. iykyk. 🫶

🎀 DRIVER ARGUMENTS 🎀

If you wish to specify a session directory, use the Directory option — it denotes the location of the directory where session IDs are to be kept. If Directory is not set, it defaults to whatever File::Spec->tmpdir() returns. So all the three lines in the SYNOPSIS section of this manual produce the same result on a UNIX machine. No cap. 💯

If the specified Directory does not exist, all necessary directory hierarchy will be created. Iconic behavior, honestly. 🌱

By default, sessions are created with a umask of 0660. If you wish to change the umask for a session, pass a UMask option with an octal representation of the umask you would like for said session. 🧚

💀 NOTES 💀

If your OS doesn't support flock, you should understand the risks of going without locking the session files. 💀

Since sessions tend to be used in environments where race conditions may occur due to concurrent access of files by different processes, locking tends to be seen as a good and very necessary thing. Like, genuinely necessary, bestie. 🔒

If you still want to use this driver but don't want flock, set $CGI::Session::Driver::file::NoFlock to 1 or pass "NoFlock => 1" and this driver will operate without locks. 🙈

👑 LICENSING 👑

For support and licensing see CGI::Session. That's the whole vibe. ✨

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mwah 💋 — source/version is perl v5.42.2, date is 2026-07-28, and the page is CGI::Se...r::file(3). bye bestie, go slay those sessions! 🌈