PHP Function Session_Start
php function session_start is a very important function that starts a new session or resumes an existing one. It takes the session id as an argument, which can be passed via a GET variable or a cookie. Once a session is started the $_SESSION superglobal array becomes available, which can be used to store all kinds of user data for later retrieval.
For example, a website may want to know how many times a specific remote client has visited the site. This can be done by saving information in the Session, for instance, a counter variable named counter. The next time the client visits the website, this value is automatically restored. This can also be useful for storing authentication credentials like username and password.
Another use case for a Session is logging in to a website. To do this, the web page will pass the session id to the server, which then checks whether the login data is valid. If it is, the server will then start a new session or resume an existing one. This new session will then send the PHPSESSID cookie back to the browser and the $_SESSION superglobal variable will be populated with the relevant data.
The session_start() function can accept a number of options to control how the sessions are saved and managed. These options can be passed via the options argument. A special option is the read_and_close option, which causes a session to be closed as soon as it is read. This avoids unnecessary locking if the session data won't change.