If you want to fetch the value of $cookies{'CGISESSID'}, why do you check whether $cookies{'name'} exists?

Maybe all you need to do is to check whether $cookies{'CGISESSID'} exists?

Thank you for your reply Corion but it doesn't seem to matter that much the problem is with the ->value. If a cookie doesn't exist it flags a 'Can't call method "value" on an undefined value at line #' because it's trying to read a value from a cookie that doesn't exist? I was using the if (exists $cookies line to lose the error but when a cookie does exist the if line seems to stamp on the data leaving it undef?

if (exists $cookies line to lose the error but when a cookie does exist the if line seems to stamp on the data leaving it undef?

That will be because in your sample code you overwrite the %cookies hash immediately on the next line. Don't do that if the hash already exists (it's pointless).

Have you read CGI::Session::Tutorial ?

Read it, re-read it and slept on it but just can't see it in my situation. Like I said this is the first time I've picked it up in years and it's fried my brain. Thanks

Here is some simple code to do what you are suggesting. On note is i use a custom cookie name TSSID.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict; use warnings; 
select STDOUT; $| = 1;



  my $session_dir='/home/huck/monks-sessions';  # must exist and be wr
+iteable by www userid 
  my $expires='+1m'; # '+7d' '+1h' ; 

  my $cookieexpires=$expires; 

#  use dbi::ezdbiutil        qw/ezdbi_gethash/; 

  use CGI;

  use CGI::Session;
  use CGI::Cookie;

  my $style='disk'; 
#  $style='mysql'; 


  my $session; 
  my $notloggedin=''; 
  my $cookies; 

  my %passwords=(admin=>'admin',huck=>'huck'); 
  my $cgi = CGI->new;

  my $tssid  = $cgi->cookie('TSSID');
  my $timelast; 

  my $sessiona1; my $sessiona3; 

  if ($style eq 'mysql'){ 
      eval 'use cheap::mysqls         qw/sql_connect/; '; 
      my ($dbh,$rc) = sql_connect(dbi=>'mysql',id=>'monks');
      die "Cannot connect: $DBI::errstr" unless ($dbh);
      $sessiona1="driver:MySQL"; $sessiona3={ Handle => $dbh }; 
      } 
  else { $sessiona1=undef; $sessiona3={Directory=>$session_dir}; } 


#  my $session = CGI::Session->load("driver:MySQL", $query, { Handle =
+> $dbh }); 



  unless ($tssid){ 
      my $userid  =$cgi->param('userid');
      my $password=$cgi->param('password');
      $userid=''   unless ($userid); 
      $password='' unless ($password); 
      unless ( $userid)                             {$notloggedin='Ple
+ase Login';}  
      elsif  (! $passwords{$userid})                {$notloggedin='Bad
+ Userid';}  
      elsif  ($password  ne $passwords{$userid})    {$notloggedin='Bad
+ Password';}  
      else { 
          $session = CGI::Session->new($sessiona1, undef,$sessiona3);
          $cookies = [CGI::Cookie->new(-name    =>  'TSSID',
                                        -value   =>  $session->id, 
                                        -expires =>  $cookieexpires
                                       )];
          $session->expires($expires);
          $session->param('user_id',$userid);
          $session->param('timein'  , time);
          $session->param('timelast', time);
          $timelast=time; 
          $session->flush(); 
          } # ok  
      } # no tssid 
  else { 
      $session = CGI::Session->load($sessiona1, $tssid, $sessiona3);
      if ( $session->is_expired )    { 
          $notloggedin='login expired ' ; 
          $session->delete(); 
          $session->flush();
          } 
      elsif ( $session->is_empty )   { $notloggedin='login not found';
+} 
      else { 
          $cookies = [CGI::Cookie->new(-name    =>  'TSSID',
                                        -value   =>  $session->id, 
                                        -expires =>  $cookieexpires
                                       )];
          $timelast=$session->param('timelast'); 
          $session->param('timelast', time);
          $session->flush(); 
          } 
      } 

  if ($notloggedin){ 
      $cookies = [$cgi->cookie(TSSID => '')];
      print $cgi->header(-cookie=>$cookies); 

      print '<html><head><title>Must login</title></head><body>'."\n";
+ 
      print '<h1>Must login</h1>'."\n"; 
      print '<h3>'.$notloggedin.'</h3>'."\n"; 

      print '<form method="POST">'."\n"; 
      print 'Userid:<input type="text" name="userid">'."\n"; 
      print ' Password:<input type="text" name="password">'."\n"; 
      print '<input type="submit" value="Login">'."\n"; 
      print '</form>'."\n"; 
      } 
  else { 
      if ($cookies) {print $cgi->header(-cookie=>$cookies); } 
      else { print $cgi->header(); } 
      print '#html content after seccessfully login'; 
      print '<br>hi '.$session->param('user_id');
      print ' loggedin for '.(time-$session->param('timein')).' second
+s';
      print ' last seen '.(time-$timelast).' seconds ago';
      } 
  print '</body></html>'; 
  CGI::Session->find($sessiona1 ,sub {} ,$sessiona3); # clean expired 
+sessions
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