Question

when using php + memcache(d) pecl extensions, is it possible to pull the remaining lifetime of an element using one of the built in memcache(d) functions?

i know this can be done by doing a full dump of the memcached base, parsing out the element one is after, and reading the timestamp. but this is a very heavy way of doing things.

another way i suppose this could be done is by setting the time added in the element itself, sort of like this:

$data=array('dateadded'=>time(),'data'=>$datatostore);

but once again, this seams slightly redundant.

btw, by memcache(d) i mean we have both the memcache extension installed (http://pecl.php.net/memcache) as well as the memcached one (http://pecl.php.net/memcached).

we use the memcached one for our actual code based stuff (set, read, remove, etc) and the memcache one for our sessions.

thanks!

Answer 1

No, this is not possible. Storing the expiration time with the data itself is probably your best bet if you need this info. See here also.