Odd problem with "$_POST" 'doubling up' variable values

edbelcher

I am moving an existing Apache/PHP/MYSQL application to a new Redhat8 server with the PRM installed Apache/PHP/MYSQL suite. The new server is set with register_globals off. I have to convert the old code's use of register_globals on, and have run into this problem:

a.php - a form with a hidden value and a submit
###########

$x=1;
      echo "<form action=\"b.php\" method=\"post\">\n";
      echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"num\" value=\"$x\">";
      echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Send\" >\n";
      echo "</form>\n";

###########
b.php - a page that attempts to read the "POST" value from a.php

foreach ( $_POST as $key=>$val ) {
stripslashes($val);
echo "$key <br> ";
echo "$val <br>";
}

###########

Output:
num
1num=1

The key is correct, but the passed value is 'doubled up'.
Server info from phpinfo();:
PHP Version 4.2.2
POST["num"] 1num=1

Thanks in advance for the help.

theeper

Not sure what you mean. If $x = 1 and $_POST["1num"] = 1, what do you mean by 'doubled up' ?

edbelcher

the key is "num", but the value is "1num=1". The expected value should be "1".

theeper

Hmm, when I run this, I get the following output.

num
1

edbelcher

At least we isolated it to the 'server', and not the code. What configurations could effect the values of the $_POST array?

theeper

I am not aware of anything that affects the autoglobal $_POST array other than older versions of PHP not supporting it. The version I tested that on was PHP v 4.1.2

edbelcher

Further testing:
I added a second variable to the first file:

$x=1;
$a=abc;
      echo "<form action=\"b.php\" method=\"post\">\n";
      echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"num\" value=\"$x\">";
      echo "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"alpha\" value=\"$a\">";
      echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Send\" >\n";
      echo "</form>\n";

Now the output is:
key is num
value is 1
key is alpha
value is abc

I can't explain it. I'm taking the easy way out -- I'll just use more than one variable ...

Thanks for the help ...