diff --git a/config-dist.php b/config-dist.php
index 68bb3b5df91..03f27f8dd14 100644
--- a/config-dist.php
+++ b/config-dist.php
@@ -204,8 +204,14 @@ $CFG->defaultblocks = 'participants,activity_modules,search_forums,admin,course_
 // The next lines are needed both for bounce handling and any other email to module processing.
 // mailprefix must be EXACTLY four characters.
 // Uncomment and customise this block for Postfix 
-//$CFG->mailprefix = 'mdl+'; // + is postfix default separator. 
+//$CFG->mailprefix = 'mdl+'; // + is the separator for Exim and Postfix.
+//$CFG->mailprefix = 'mdl-'l // - is the separator for qmail 
 //$CFG->maildomain = 'youremaildomain.com';
+//
+// The following setting will tell Moodle to respect your PHP session 
+// settings. Use this if you want to control session configuration
+// from php.ini, httpd.conf or .htaccess files. 
+//     $CFG->respectsessionsettings = true;
 
 //=========================================================================
 // ALL DONE!  To continue installation, visit your main page with a browser
diff --git a/lib/setup.php b/lib/setup.php
index f9fd5833de6..79e38d27df3 100644
--- a/lib/setup.php
+++ b/lib/setup.php
@@ -172,29 +172,38 @@ global $THEME;
     //$smarty->compile_dir = $CFG->dataroot .'/cache';
 
 /// Set up session handling 
-    if (empty($CFG->dbsessions)) {   /// File-based sessions
-        if (!empty($CFG->sessiontimeout)) {
-            ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', $CFG->sessiontimeout);
-        }
-    
-        if (!file_exists($CFG->dataroot .'/sessions')) {
-            make_upload_directory('sessions');
-        }
-        ini_set('session.save_path', $CFG->dataroot .'/sessions');
-
-    } else {                         /// Database sessions
-	    ini_set('session.save_handler', 'user');
-
-	    $ADODB_SESSION_DRIVER  = $CFG->dbtype;
-	    $ADODB_SESSION_CONNECT = $CFG->dbhost;
-	    $ADODB_SESSION_USER    = $CFG->dbuser;
-	    $ADODB_SESSION_PWD     = $CFG->dbpass;
-	    $ADODB_SESSION_DB      = $CFG->dbname;
-	    $ADODB_SESSION_TBL     = $CFG->prefix.'sessions';
+    if(empty($CFG->respectsessionsettings)) {
+        if (empty($CFG->dbsessions)) {   /// File-based sessions
+            
+            // Some distros disable GC by setting probability to 0
+            // overriding the PHP default of 1 
+            // (gc_probability is divided by gc_divisor, which defaults to 1000)
+            if (ini_get('session.gc_probability') == 0) {
+                ini_set('session.gc_probability', 1);
+            }
+         
+            if (!empty($CFG->sessiontimeout)) {
+                ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', $CFG->sessiontimeout);
+            }
         
-	    require_once($CFG->libdir. '/adodb/session/adodb-session.php');
+            if (!file_exists($CFG->dataroot .'/sessions')) {
+                make_upload_directory('sessions');
+            }
+            ini_set('session.save_path', $CFG->dataroot .'/sessions');
+    
+        } else {                         /// Database sessions
+    	    ini_set('session.save_handler', 'user');
+    
+    	    $ADODB_SESSION_DRIVER  = $CFG->dbtype;
+    	    $ADODB_SESSION_CONNECT = $CFG->dbhost;
+    	    $ADODB_SESSION_USER    = $CFG->dbuser;
+    	    $ADODB_SESSION_PWD     = $CFG->dbpass;
+    	    $ADODB_SESSION_DB      = $CFG->dbname;
+    	    $ADODB_SESSION_TBL     = $CFG->prefix.'sessions';
+            
+    	    require_once($CFG->libdir. '/adodb/session/adodb-session.php');
+        }
     }
-
 /// Set sessioncookie variable if it isn't already
     if (!isset($CFG->sessioncookie)) {
         $CFG->sessioncookie = '';