File Upload Time-Out

Anon

Hi,

I'm trying to create a webbased file-upload section on my website. Visitors get the oportunity to upload files up to 6 MB.
I've created 2 very simple webpages:

------ filename: uploadarea.html -------
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Upload Area</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FORM ACTION="uploaded.php" METHOD="post" ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="MAX_FILE_SIZE" value="6000000">
<INPUT TYPE=file NAME="userfile"></INPUT>
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Send Demo"></INPUT>
</FORM>
</BODY>

------ filename: uploaded.php ----------

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Uploaded</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<?php
set_time_limit(10000);

if(!empty($userfile) && !empty($userfile_size)){
echo "You've uploaded: ".$userfile_name."<BR>\n";
echo "Filesize: ".$userfile_size."<BR>\n";

copy ($userfile, "./demos/".$userfile_name);

}

?>
</BODY>

When the uploadarea.html page is loaded the visitor can browse to the file he/she wants to upload. By pressing the 'Send Demo' button the form is submitted and file-upload will start. After a period of time (ranging from 1 to 2 minutes(???)) I get an error returned in my browser saying: 'Fatal Error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in D:\foo.com\www\uploaded.php on line 2'.
What can I do to get this to work properly?
Somebody suggested the use of set_time_limit, but I'm not sure if this is of any use in my code...

My hostingprovider has it's PHP Enviroment variable 'max_execution_time' set to 30 seconds. I'm not allowed to change this setting. The PHP version is 4.0.8dev.

Anybody outthere with a good idea/solution?
Thanks in advance,

Tom van der Geer

matto

Somebody suggested the use of set_time_limit, but I'm not sure if this is of any use in my code...

have you tried it?
place it in the top of your download processing script. you should check that out.

[deleted]

"Somebody suggested the use of set_time_limit, but I'm not sure if this is of any use in my code..."

definition of set_time_limit in the manual:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.set-time-limit.php

"Set the number of seconds a script is allowed to run." ...yada yada... "If seconds is set to zero, no time limit is imposed."

Sounds exactly like what you are looking for doesn't it? :-)

Anon

Try placing set_time_limit(0); in the code so there's no problem timing out.

Anon

Hmm...

3 replies, 3 similar answers... But still no solution for me...

Once more my code:

------ filename: uploadarea.html -------

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Upload Area</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FORM ACTION="uploaded.php" METHOD="post" ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME="MAX_FILE_SIZE" value="6000000">
<INPUT TYPE=file NAME="userfile"></INPUT>
<INPUT TYPE=submit VALUE="Send Demo"></INPUT>
</FORM>
</BODY>

------ filename: uploaded.php ----------

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Uploaded</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<?php
set_time_limit(0);

if(!empty($userfile) && !empty($userfile_size)){
echo "You've uploaded: ".$userfile_name."<BR>\n";
echo "Filesize: ".$userfile_size."<BR>\n";

copy ($userfile, "./demos/".$userfile_name);
}

?>
</BODY>

I've replaced the set_time_limit(10000) in uploaded.php with set_time_limit(0), but it made no difference. I still get 'Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in D:\foo.com\www\uploaded.php on line 6'.
The strange thing is. There's no code on line 6, just "<?php"... (beware: these forum pages don't display the HTML-tag)
Is the placement of the set_time_limit(0) call correct?
Hope anybody can help me...
Thanks in advance,

Tom van der Geer

[deleted]

sh*te.

Why didn't I see this sooner? (sound of hand hitting forehead)

File uploads are handled before any of the script is executed.

PHP starts the script, handles the file upload (waits for it to complete) and then starts executing the script.
So the set_time_limit() is executed after the file has been uploaded.

To make this work you will have to change the time limit settings in your php.ini (if you are allowed to do that) or maybe you can alter it througha .htaccess file (I'm too lazy to look that up right now)

Anon

You're correct. I'm not allowed to change the settings in the php.ini settings-file... A .htaccess file will not do, because it can only change some settings in my webserver. Not in PHP.

But what you're actually saying is that the PHP execution timer starts running even before the script is executed. That's seems strange to me. I don't see the file-upload as a PHP-function. Isn't there a possiblity to split the max_execution_time from a value that limits the file upload time, something like 'max_httppost_time'?

Any more ideas?
Regards,

Tom

[deleted]

"A .htaccess file will not do, because it can only change some settings in my webserver. Not in PHP."

... and the webserver passes the changes on to PHP. We did not suggest this for nothing 🙂

"I don't see the file-upload as a PHP-function"

It isn't, but the webserver can only accept the upload if it knows that there is a script or something to handle it. Thus it must start the script first (to parse it, see if there are errors etc) before starting the upload.