[mv] deadlock with retired sessions - minivend 3.14.X

[Brian Bullen <brian@bullen.uk.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Brian Bullen <brian@bullen.uk.com>     ******

Problem with minivend 3-14.5 (also preceding releases, 3-14.3 and
3-14.4)

A browser  reloads a page with a URL containing a session id that has
expired.
e.g.
    http://myserver.com/cgi-bin/vlink/product.code?SESSIONID;;

The child process for that connection goes into a loop, and is killed by

the server lock check with text of error in server error.log:

"hammered PID 12345 running 300 seconds"

This is a severe problem - most minivend activity hangs as the session
database is locked,
and the cpu is very busy.

I have a workaround that works for my system.
In Server.pm, subroutine new_session,
change:

for (;;) {
    $Vend::SessionID = random_string() unless defined $seed;
    next if $Vend::RetireDBM($Vend::SessionID);
    undef $seed;

by undefining $seed before jumping back to start of loop, i.e.
for (;;) {
    $Vend::SessionID = random_string() unless defined $seed;
    undef $seed;
    next if $Vend::RetireDBM($Vend::SessionID);

Best Wishes
Brian Bullen



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