PHP session variables interchanged with local variables?

[allallovko]

I've encountered a very odd issue in regards to session variables and local variables in php. I'm trying to figure out if I am not understanding something about sessions in php or if this is an issue with the php version my host is using.Here is a very simple code to demonstrate the weird issue:\[code\]session_start(); var_dump($kenny); var_dump($_SESSION['kenny']); $_SESSION['kenny']='def'; var_dump($kenny); var_dump($_SESSION['kenny']); $kenny = 'abc'; var_dump($kenny); var_dump($_SESSION['kenny']); \[/code\]The first time I run the code, I get the following results (as one would expect):\[code\]NULL NULL NULL string(3) "def" string(3) "abc" string(3) "def"\[/code\]I run it a second time (without closing my browser, of course), I get this now!\[code\]string(3) "def" string(3) "def" string(3) "def" string(3) "def" string(3) "abc" string(3) "abc" \[/code\]I run it a 3rd, 4th, 5th time and so on, I get this!!!\[code\]string(3) "abc" string(3) "abc" string(3) "def" string(3) "def" string(3) "abc" string(3) "abc" \[/code\]It looks to me like the session variable 'kenny' and local variable $kenny become aliases to one and the other after running the script more than once. hmm... I really don't think this is how session variables and local variables work in php. Please correct me if I'm missing something here.My web host is running php 5.2.2. When I try this exact same code on other hosts running php 5.2.1, 5.2.14 and 5.3.1, they always give me what I expect:1st time:\[code\]NULL NULL NULL string(3) "def" string(3) "abc" string(3) "def"\[/code\]thereafter:\[code\]NULL string(3) "def" NULL string(3) "def" string(3) "abc" string(3) "def" \[/code\]I checked the change log on php.net and didn't find anything that I can relate to that may address this issue. But like I mentioned, an earlier build (5.2.1) works ok, so that's very puzzling to me.If anyone runs any other version of php 5.2.x, please give it a try and let me know if you see the same issue. Or if anyone has any insight into the issue, I'd really appreciate any feedback.Thanks a million!