Which Session Driver do you recommend?

you will get the same thing regardless of the driver.. be it redis/memcache/file/database.. it will store same data you r storing now -

if you are looking to reduce the size then you need different strategies..

For most cases, the default (FileSessionHandler) should work just fine.

Unless yours is a high traffic site, I do not see why it should be 10MB.

If you look at the source code: https://github.com/illuminate/session/blob/master/FileSessionHandler.php#L101

The gc() routine takes care of deleting files that are older than "lifetime" specified in your config/session. I'm guessing this is not running properly.. A permissions issue perhaps? More investigation is required. Set the 'expire_on_close' option to true (in config/session) to see if it alleviates the problem.

It is a site with about 4700 unique visits a day @gator, if I set "lifetime" in config/session.php, with an expiration of about 43200 minutes = 30 days, the storage/framework /session directory is emptied every month, but then all users every thirty days have to re-login.

Realize that I have converted my portal in Laravel for about 6 days ... In a week that folder weighed 10MB and inside there were more than 150k files... If I had to put it every 30 days the folder would explode...

But what are these files for? everything that users do on the site or just logins?

@shez1983 And selecting cookies, how do you save the same data I'm saving now with files?

cookies is in users browser... its not a secure way of saving data.. and user might delete cookies..

why so many session files? 4700 multiplied by 6 days is not 150k files.

Something else may be wrong

@Snapey What are the file sessions to contain? only when a user logins in?

Because to me is also saved every page that the user visits, example:

a:3:{s:6:"_token";s:40:"2J2Y6YfFMO8ZuqWV64bnuw36L8Uymq4h78aBMn75";s:9:"_previous";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:28:"/rss.php";}s:6:"_flash";a:2:{s:3:"old";a:0:{}s:3:"new";a:0:{}}}

a:3:{s:6:"_token";s:40:"2mUfgeulnmhGN0eS1jAXxEYEZdV3aiLnnMRAARbl";s:9:"_previous";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:61:"giochi/the-witness-pc/gallery";}s:6:"_flash";a:2:{s:3:"old";a:0:{}s:3:"new";a:0:{}}}

Why this thing? I just reactivated the Sessions with files and I already have 143 files...

@Shez1983 If the user deletes cookies it is because he wants to remove access ... But how come you say that they are few sure?

In 5 hours, 3912 files... Is this normal?

If you had 3912 uniques in that time?

In config/session.php, have you set anything here;

    | Session Cookie Domain
    |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    |
    | Here you may change the domain of the cookie used to identify a session
    | in your application. This will determine which domains the cookie is
    | available to in your application. A sensible default has been set.
    |
    */

    'domain' => env('SESSION_DOMAIN', null),

or in the SESSION_DOMAIN parameter in .env ?

No, In domain I have:

'domain' => env('SESSION_DOMAIN', null),

and in the env it is not reported, so it is null...

Now i have 9998 file for 2348450 bytes = 2,34 megabytes

The size of the session file depends what you are stashing in it

I'm not hiding anything... I simply do not understand why it saves every single session and page visited, these are some contents of the files:

a:3:{s:6:"_token";s:40:"l5bbPnKcUdloPAwKSyO0qMkgpdZK83KIGBFo8t8f";s:9:"_previous";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:63:"/trofei/viva-ferrari";}s:6:"_flash";a:2:{s:3:"old";a:0:{}s:3:"new";a:0:{}}}
a:3:{s:6:"_token";s:40:"Rp4wEKoHQiOh4E1chSWMxmufbVgJRQjRtxnoDbOS";s:9:"_previous";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:147:"nuovo-trailer-di-sid-meiers-civilization-vi-rise-and-fall";}s:6:"_flash";a:2:{s:3:"old";a:0:{}s:3:"new";a:0:{}}}

Honestly, I do not even understand what it means:

s:6:"_flash";a:2:{s:3:"old";a:0:{}s:3:"new";a:0:{}

This is my Session.php file:

return [
    'driver' => env('SESSION_DRIVER', 'file'),
    'lifetime' => 525600, // 1 year
    'expire_on_close' => false,
    'encrypt' => false,
    'files' => storage_path('framework/sessions'),
    'connection' => null,
    'table' => 'sessions',
    'store' => null,
    'lottery' => [2, 100],
    'cookie' => 'ge_user_session',
    'path' => '/',
    'domain' => env('SESSION_DOMAIN', null),
    'secure' => env('SESSION_SECURE_COOKIE', false),
    'http_only' => true,
];

Edit: I just found this old thread "https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/laravel/thousands-of-files-in-session-folder" I try to see if I solve it too ...

The file is a serialised session object. There is nothing unusual in there.

And just to reiterate, each visitor will create a session file, and as you have set the lifetime to a year, these will stay around for a very long time. (normal duration is 2 hours, with two old sessions being deleted every 100 requests)

I bring this discussion back to life a few weeks ago. I set 120 as suggested by @Snapey, unfortunately, however, users find themselves having to log in to the site several times a day... how can I avoid this?

No idea?

you can avoid them logging in again with a rememberMe cookie like you get with the standard Auth