[Resolved] File Uploads and memory_limit

[freebie]

I'm working on a file upload script and all works well except for large files. I've set post_max_size to 21M and set upload_max_filesize to 20M (both via php.ini). A 5 MB file uploads without problem, but a 15 MB file seems to cause the browser to "hang" indefinitely (the upload status bar in IE gets to the end and then stays there until I close the browser - even if 20 minutes later).
I think my problem is the memory_limit setting, but I wanted to check to see if anyone had any advice on this. Currently, my memory_limit setting is at 8MB. Since file uploads are written to the /tmp directory (and thus to disk), I wouldn't think there would be any need to raise the memory_limit setting. Does the memory_limit setting need to be set higher than the post_max_size and upload_max_filesize settings?

Thanks for any suggestions

[drawmack]

when the file is uploaded via http the entire file is stored in memory until the upload is complete. Then php kick in and retrieves the file from memory and writes it to the disk.

This is one place where the simplicity of php does not pay off, in other scripting languages (i.e. perl) it is upto the programmer to retrieve the file and write it to the disk so this misunderstanding cannot happen.

[freebie]

actually, I don't think my problem was the memory thing, and as far as I know, php writes the file to disk in the /tmp directory rather than storing it in memory.

I think the problem was simply that a 15 MB file upload (http) can take quite a long time (20 min) even on a fast connection (since upload speeds are slower than download speeds). Also, I think that part of the long upload time issue was the fact that this is on a secure connection (https), and the encryption of the packets adds quite a bit of overhead to each packet (from what I understand)

[rachel2004]

Jeff, did it finally upload? Just curious if you confirmed if the problem was actually the slow upload time.

[freebie]

Well, I did something I shouldn't have. I increased the memory_limit and then tested again. It took a very long time, but this time I was tracking the upload status ( I posted a thread on how to do this here, http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10277986 ) and watched it upload, and a 15 MB file took about 20 min to upload. I'm going to decrease the memory_limit value now and try it again. I'll post the results when I'm done.

[rachel2004]

Thanks. Will be watching for your post.

[freebie]

OK, I confirmed this.
I set the memory_limit to 8M, and uploaded a 13 MB file without any problems.
Also, one thing I've noticed people mention regarding file uploads is using set_time_limit() to increase the max_execution_time. This is not needed. My max_execution_time is set to 30. Note that max_execution_time is not related to the time taken up during receiving a file. That's what max_input_time is for (which is -1 by default meaning indefinite).

Thus the only things that you need to set when doing file uploads are post_max_size and upload_max_filesize

[rachel2004]

Originally posted by freebie
Thus the only things that you need to set when doing file uploads are post_max_size and upload_max_filesize

Good, that confirms my understanding of it as well, but I had never tested beyond 5 Mb. It's also my understanding that files are uploaded to the /tmp directory and from there, you have to make a call to move_uploaded_file() to move the file to the destination directory.