Note that, when you want to upload VERY large files (or you want to set the limiters VERY high for test purposes), all of the upload file size limiters are stored in signed 32-bit ints. This means that setting a limit higher than about 2.1 GB will result in PHP seeing a large negative number. I have not found any way around this.
Common Pitfalls
The MAX_FILE_SIZE item cannot specify a file size
greater than the file size that has been set in the upload_max_filesize in
the php.ini file. The default is 2 megabytes.
If a memory limit is enabled, a larger memory_limit may be needed. Make sure you set memory_limit large enough.
If max_execution_time
is set too small, script execution may be exceeded by the value. Make
sure you set max_execution_time large enough.
Notă: max_execution_time only affects the execution time of the script itself. Any time spent on activity that happens outside the execution of the script such as system calls using system(), the sleep() function, database queries, time taken by the file upload process, etc. is not included when determining the maximum time that the script has been running.
Avertizare
max_input_time sets the maximum
time, in seconds, the script is allowed to receive input; this includes
file uploads. For large or multiple files, or users on slower connections,
the default of 60 seconds may be exceeded.
If post_max_size is set too
small, large files cannot be uploaded. Make sure you set
post_max_size large enough.
As of PHP 5.2.12, the
max_file_uploads configuration
setting controls the maximum number of files that can uploaded in one
request. If more files are uploaded than the limit, then
$_FILES will stop processing files once the limit is
reached. For example, if
max_file_uploads is set to
10, then $_FILES will never contain
more than 10 items.
Not validating which file you operate on may mean that users can access sensitive information in other directories.
Please note that the CERN httpd seems to strip off everything starting at the first whitespace in the content-type mime header it gets from the client. As long as this is the case, CERN httpd will not support the file upload feature.
Due to the large amount of directory listing styles we cannot guarantee that files with exotic names (like containing spaces) are handled properly.
A developer may not mix normal input fields and file upload fields in the same
form variable (by using an input name like foo[]).
add a note
User Contributed Notes 12 notes
amalcon _a_t_ eudoramail _d_o_t_ com ¶
20 years ago
Nirmal Natarajan ¶
14 years ago
If using IIS 7.0 or above, the Request Filtering is enabled by default and the max allowed content length is set to 30 MB.
One must change this value if they want to allow file uploads of more than 30 MB.
Sample web.config entry:
<configuration>
</system.webServer>
<security>
<requestFiltering>
<requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="314572800"/>
</requestFiltering>
</security>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
The above setting will allow 300 MB of data to be sent as a request. Hope this helps someone.
adrien.nizon+phpnet at gmail dot com ¶
8 years ago
[Editor's note: to be more precise, MAX_FILE_SIZE can't exceed PHP_INT_MAX before PHP 7.1.]
Please note that the field MAX_FILE_SIZE cannot exceed 2147483647. Any greater value will lead to an upload error that will be displayed at the end of the upload
This is explained by the related C code :
if (!strcasecmp(param, "MAX_FILE_SIZE")) {
max_file_size = atol(value);
}
The string is converted into a long int, which max value is... 2147483647
Seems to be corrected since php-7.1.0beta3 (https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/cb4c195f0b85ca5d91fee1ebe90105b8bb68356c)
admin at creationfarm dot com ¶
21 years ago
The macintosh OS (not sure about OSx) uses a dual forked file system, unlike the rest of the world ;-). Every macintosh file has a data fork and a resource fork. When a dual forked file hits a single forked file system, something has to go, and it is the resource fork. This was recognized as a problem (bad idea to begin with) and apple started recomending that developers avoid sticking vital file info in the resource fork portion of a file, but some files are still very sensitive to this. The main ones to watch out for are macintosh font files and executables, once the resource fork is gone from a mac font or an executable it is useless. To protect the files they should be stuffed or zipped prior to upload to protect the resource fork.
Most mac ftp clients (like fetch) allow files to be uploaded in Macbinhex, which will also protect the resource fork when transfering files via ftp. I have not seen this equivilent in any mac browser (but I haven't done too much digging either).
FYI, apple does have an old utility called ResEdit that lets you manipulate the resource fork portion of a file.
dg at artegic dot de ¶
14 years ago
In case of non-deterministic occurence of the UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL error: The HTTPD (e.g. Apache) should respond with a 'Accept-Ranges: none' header field.
morganaj at coleggwent dot ac dot uk ¶
21 years ago
Here is another that may make your upload fall over. If you are using Squid or similar proxy server make sure that this is not limiting the size of the HTTP headers. This took me weeks to figure out!
anders jenbo pc dk ¶
17 years ago
A responce to admin at creationfarm dot com, Mac OS X and Windows running on a NTFS disk also uses a multi stream file system. Still only the data stream in transfared on http upload. It is preferable to pack Mac OS X files in .dmg files rathere then zip but the avarage user will find zip much easir and they are supported on more platforms.
bohwaz ¶
2 years ago
Please be advised that setting a large post_max_size or upload_max_filesize for a complete server or a complete virtual host is not a good idea as it may lead to increased security risks.
The risk is that an attacker may send very large POST requests and overloading your server memory and CPU as it has to parse and process those requests before handling them to your PHP script.
So it's best to limit changing this setting to some files or directories. For example if I want to /admin/files/ and /admin/images/ I can use:
<If "%{REQUEST_URI} =~ m!^/admin/(files|images)/! && -n %{HTTP_COOKIE}">
php_value post_max_size 256M
php_value upload_max_filesize 256M
</If>
I also require the request to have a cookie to avoid basic attacks. This will not protect you against attacks coming from non-authenticated users, but may delay any attack.
This setting can be used in Apache server configuration files, and .htaccess files as well.
tjaart at siam-data-services dot com ¶
19 years ago
Took me a while to figure this one out...
I think this is actually a header problem, but it only
happens when doing a file upload.
If you attept a header("location:http://...) redirect after
processing a $_POST[''] from a form doing a file upload
(i.e. having enctype="multipart/form-data"), the redirect
doesn't work in IE if you don't have a space between
location: & http, i.e.
header("location:http://...) vs
header("location: http://...)
===================================
<?php
if ($_POST['submit']=='Upload') {
// Process File and the redirect...
header("location: http://"..."/somewhere.php");
exit;
}
?>
<html><head></head><body>
<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="upload.php" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="MAX_FILE_SIZE" value="20000">
Your file: <input name="filename" type="file">
<input name="submit" type="submit" value="Upload">
</form>
</body></html>
===================================
This only happens if all of the following are true:
header("location:http://...) with no space
Form being processed has enctype="multipart/form-data"
Browser=IE
To fix the problem, simply add the space.
Hope this helps someone else.
tomcashman at unitekgroup dot com ¶
21 years ago
For apache, also check the LimitRequestBody directive.
If you're running a Red Hat install, this might be set in /etc/httpd/conf.d/php.conf.
By default, mine was set to 512 KB.
oliver dot schmidt at drehsinn dot de ¶
17 years ago
If you want to use open_basedir for securing your server (which is highly recommended!!!) remember to add your tmp dir to the open_basedir value in php.ini.
Example: open_basedir = <your htdocs root, etc...>:/tmp
(Tested on gentoo Linux, Apache 2.2, PHP 5.1.6)
sebastian at drozdz dot ch ¶
21 years ago
It's important that the variable 'open_basedir' in php.ini isn't set to a directory that doesn't not includes tempupload directory
