why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

[lawrence k]

I've a file upload script on my site. I just now used it to upload a
small text document (10k). Everything worked fine.

Then I tried to upload a 5.3 meg Quicktime video.

Didn't work.

I've set the POST limit in php.ini to 8 megs.

What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?

[Steve]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 03:08:20 -0800, lawrence k wrote:
[color=blue]
> I've a file upload script on my site. I just now used it to upload a
> small text document (10k). Everything worked fine.
>
> Then I tried to upload a 5.3 meg Quicktime video.
>
> Didn't work.
>
> I've set the POST limit in php.ini to 8 megs.
>
> What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?[/color]
5 megs of binary data will be sent as a lot more than that of (base 64
encoded?) ascii data.

Try doubling your limit and see if it magically works.

Steve

[john.d.mann@sbcglobal.net]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is stillwithin the POST limit?

lawrence k wrote:[color=blue]
> I've a file upload script on my site. I just now used it to upload a
> small text document (10k). Everything worked fine.
>
> Then I tried to upload a 5.3 meg Quicktime video.
>
> Didn't work.
>
> I've set the POST limit in php.ini to 8 megs.
>
> What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?
>[/color]


Check also your script time-out limit. Your long upload might be taking
too long?

[Geoff Muldoon]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

john.d.mann@sbc global.net says...[color=blue]
> lawrence k wrote:[color=green]
> >
> > I've set the POST limit in php.ini to 8 megs.
> >
> > What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?[/color]
>
> Check also your script time-out limit. Your long upload might be taking
> too long?[/color]

If you're using PHP on Apache check that the httpd.conf settings aren't
lower than your PHP settings.

Geoff M

[Andy Hassall]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 23:13:23 +1300, Steve <ThisOne@Aint.V alid> wrote:
[color=blue]
>On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 03:08:20 -0800, lawrence k wrote:
>[color=green]
>> What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?[/color]
>
>5 megs of binary data will be sent as a lot more than that of (base 64
>encoded?) ascii data.
>
>Try doubling your limit and see if it magically works.[/color]

File uploads are not base64 encoded, they are sent pretty much raw using
multipart/form-data.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/interact/forms.html#h-17.13.4.2

A 5MB file will take 5MB plus a few bytes overhead for headers.

--
Andy Hassall :: andy@andyh.co.u k :: http://www.andyh.co.uk
http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space :: disk and FTP usage analysis tool

[Andy Hassall]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

On 8 Jan 2006 03:08:20 -0800, "lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>I've a file upload script on my site. I just now used it to upload a
>small text document (10k). Everything worked fine.
>
>Then I tried to upload a 5.3 meg Quicktime video.
>
>Didn't work.[/color]

The single most annoying phrase when describing problems, if not followed by
details. In what way did it not work?

What error did you get? You checked for errors and have error reporting turned
on, right?
[color=blue]
>I've set the POST limit in php.ini to 8 megs.
>
>What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?[/color]

Various. Almost all of which produce errors, either in the form of PHP errors,
Apache errors or the field in $_FILES.

--
Andy Hassall :: andy@andyh.co.u k :: http://www.andyh.co.uk
http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space :: disk and FTP usage analysis tool

[lawrence k]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?


Andy Hassall wrote:[color=blue]
> On 8 Jan 2006 03:08:20 -0800, "lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> >I've a file upload script on my site. I just now used it to upload a
> >small text document (10k). Everything worked fine.
> >
> >Then I tried to upload a 5.3 meg Quicktime video.
> >
> >Didn't work.[/color]
>
> The single most annoying phrase when describing problems, if not followed by
> details. In what way did it not work?[/color]

Sorry, here is what is happening. If, in FireFox 1.5, I login to the
control panel, and I try to upload a small jpeg image, 234k, it uploads
without a problem. If, on the other hand, I try to upload an 8 meg PDS
file, I instantly (no attempt at upload) get this FireFox message:

The connection was reset
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try
again in a few
moments.
* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's
network
connection.
* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or
proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.



In Internet Explorer, uploading the small file is no trouble, but
uploading the big one gives me this:

The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site
might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust
your browser settings.




Following the advice of others on this thread we (or rather, Matt
Clark, our Linux guy) have edited the php.ini file to allow 50 meg
uploads. We also looked through the config file for Apache and saw
nothing there that might have limited uploads. But the problem
persists.


[color=blue]
> What error did you get? You checked for errors and have error reporting turned
> on, right?[/color]

I'm not sure, but I don't think I have access to the errors on the
server. I'm sure Matt does though, so I'll ask him to send me these
logs.

[lawrence k]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?


Andy Hassall wrote:[color=blue]
> On 8 Jan 2006 03:08:20 -0800, "lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> >I've a file upload script on my site. I just now used it to upload a
> >small text document (10k). Everything worked fine.
> >
> >Then I tried to upload a 5.3 meg Quicktime video.
> >
> >Didn't work.[/color]
>
> The single most annoying phrase when describing problems, if not followed by
> details. In what way did it not work?
>
> What error did you get? You checked for errors and have error reporting turned
> on, right?[/color]

Our Linux guy, Matt Clark, checked for errors. He said there were no
errors in the PHP log.

[Jim Michaels]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

if you're uploading to a database, are you using MEDIUMBLOB or LONGBLOB for
a data type?

"lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com> wrote in message
news:1138079352 .221091.154200@ g44g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .[color=blue]
>
> Andy Hassall wrote:[color=green]
>> On 8 Jan 2006 03:08:20 -0800, "lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com>
>> wrote:
>>[color=darkred]
>> >I've a file upload script on my site. I just now used it to upload a
>> >small text document (10k). Everything worked fine.
>> >
>> >Then I tried to upload a 5.3 meg Quicktime video.
>> >
>> >Didn't work.[/color]
>>
>> The single most annoying phrase when describing problems, if not
>> followed by
>> details. In what way did it not work?[/color]
>
> Sorry, here is what is happening. If, in FireFox 1.5, I login to the
> control panel, and I try to upload a small jpeg image, 234k, it uploads
> without a problem. If, on the other hand, I try to upload an 8 meg PDS
> file, I instantly (no attempt at upload) get this FireFox message:
>
> The connection was reset
> The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
> * The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try
> again in a few
> moments.
> * If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's
> network
> connection.
> * If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or
> proxy, make sure
> that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
>
>
>
> In Internet Explorer, uploading the small file is no trouble, but
> uploading the big one gives me this:
>
> The page cannot be displayed
> The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site
> might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust
> your browser settings.
>
>
>
>
> Following the advice of others on this thread we (or rather, Matt
> Clark, our Linux guy) have edited the php.ini file to allow 50 meg
> uploads. We also looked through the config file for Apache and saw
> nothing there that might have limited uploads. But the problem
> persists.
>
>
>[color=green]
>> What error did you get? You checked for errors and have error reporting
>> turned
>> on, right?[/color]
>
> I'm not sure, but I don't think I have access to the errors on the
> server. I'm sure Matt does though, so I'll ask him to send me these
> logs.
>[/color]

[Andy Hassall]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

On 24 Jan 2006 17:13:53 -0800, "lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Andy Hassall wrote:[color=green]
>> What error did you get? You checked for errors and have error reporting turned
>> on, right?[/color]
>
>Our Linux guy, Matt Clark, checked for errors. He said there were no
>errors in the PHP log.[/color]

That's one log down, then. What about the others?

Hint:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>>What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?[/color]
>>
>> Various. Almost all of which produce errors, either in the form of PHP errors,
>>Apache errors or the field in $_FILES.[/color][/color]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

--
Andy Hassall :: andy@andyh.co.u k :: http://www.andyh.co.uk
http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space :: disk and FTP usage analysis tool

[lawrence k]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?


Jim Michaels wrote:[color=blue]
> if you're uploading to a database, are you using MEDIUMBLOB or LONGBLOB for
> a data type?[/color]

No, we are not uploading to a database. We are just uploading files
from our personal computers to the web server, where they are stored as
flat files.

[color=blue]
> "lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com> wrote in message
> news:1138079352 .221091.154200@ g44g2000cwa.goo glegroups.com.. .[color=green]
> >
> > Andy Hassall wrote:[color=darkred]
> >> On 8 Jan 2006 03:08:20 -0800, "lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I've a file upload script on my site. I just now used it to upload a
> >> >small text document (10k). Everything worked fine.
> >> >
> >> >Then I tried to upload a 5.3 meg Quicktime video.
> >> >
> >> >Didn't work.
> >>
> >> The single most annoying phrase when describing problems, if not
> >> followed by
> >> details. In what way did it not work?[/color]
> >
> > Sorry, here is what is happening. If, in FireFox 1.5, I login to the
> > control panel, and I try to upload a small jpeg image, 234k, it uploads
> > without a problem. If, on the other hand, I try to upload an 8 meg PDS
> > file, I instantly (no attempt at upload) get this FireFox message:
> >
> > The connection was reset
> > The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
> > * The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try
> > again in a few
> > moments.
> > * If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's
> > network
> > connection.
> > * If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or
> > proxy, make sure
> > that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
> >
> >
> >
> > In Internet Explorer, uploading the small file is no trouble, but
> > uploading the big one gives me this:
> >
> > The page cannot be displayed
> > The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site
> > might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust
> > your browser settings.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Following the advice of others on this thread we (or rather, Matt
> > Clark, our Linux guy) have edited the php.ini file to allow 50 meg
> > uploads. We also looked through the config file for Apache and saw
> > nothing there that might have limited uploads. But the problem
> > persists.
> >
> >
> >[color=darkred]
> >> What error did you get? You checked for errors and have error reporting
> >> turned
> >> on, right?[/color]
> >
> > I'm not sure, but I don't think I have access to the errors on the
> > server. I'm sure Matt does though, so I'll ask him to send me these
> > logs.
> >[/color][/color]

[lawrence k]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?


Andy Hassall wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
> >Our Linux guy, Matt Clark, checked for errors. He said there were no
> >errors in the PHP log.[/color]
>
> That's one log down, then. What about the others?
>
> Hint:
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >>>What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?
> >>
> >> Various. Almost all of which produce errors, either in the form of PHP errors,
> >>Apache errors or the field in $_FILES.[/color][/color][/color]

I don't suppose you'd know what these error files are typically called,
do you? I asked our server guy to send me the PHP error logs and he
said that PHP had only recently invented server logs, and that I
probably wanted the syslogs instead. Then he send a whole bunch of
files, with names like ssl_error_log.1 and suexec_log and error_log.2.
These have line after line that look like this:

[Mon Jan 09 11:18:38 2006] [error] [client 212.126.96.21] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-pl1
[Mon Jan 09 11:18:39 2006] [error] [client 212.126.96.21] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-pl1
[Mon Jan 09 11:18:39 2006] [error] [client 212.126.96.21] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3
[Mon Jan 09 11:18:39 2006] [error] [client 212.126.96.21] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-rc1
[Mon Jan 09 11:18:39 2006] [error] [client 212.126.96.21] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.2-rc1
[Mon Jan 09 11:21:08 2006] [notice] Graceful restart requested, doing
restart
Warning: DocumentRoot [/home/httpd/vhosts/grandingardens. com/httpdocs]
does not exist
[Mon Jan 09 11:21:14 2006] [notice] Digest: generating secret for
digest authentication ...
[Mon Jan 09 11:21:14 2006] [notice] Digest: done
[Mon Jan 09 11:21:15 2006] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName
(CN) `plesk' does NOT match server name!?
[Mon Jan 09 11:21:15 2006] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName
(CN) `plesk' does NOT match server name!?
[Mon Jan 09 11:21:15 2006] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName
(CN) `plesk' does NOT match server name!?
[Mon Jan 09 11:21:16 2006] [notice] Apache/2.0.46 (Red Hat) configured
-- resuming normal operations
[Mon Jan 09 11:36:07 2006] [notice] Graceful restart requested, doing
restart
[Mon Jan 09 11:36:07 2006] [notice] Digest: generating secret for
digest authentication ...
[Mon Jan 09 11:36:07 2006] [notice] Digest: done
[Mon Jan 09 11:36:08 2006] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName
(CN) `plesk' does NOT match server name!?
[Mon Jan 09 11:36:08 2006] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName
(CN) `plesk' does NOT match server name!?
[Mon Jan 09 11:36:08 2006] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName
(CN) `plesk' does NOT match server name!?
[Mon Jan 09 11:36:08 2006] [notice] Apache/2.0.46 (Red Hat) configured
-- resuming normal operations
[Mon Jan 09 11:38:00 2006] [error] [client 66.249.65.106] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/robots.txt
[Mon Jan 09 11:42:51 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/awstats
[Mon Jan 09 11:42:53 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] script not
found or unable to stat: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/cgi-bin/awstats.pl
[Mon Jan 09 11:42:54 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] script not
found or unable to stat: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/cgi-bin/awstats
[Mon Jan 09 11:42:56 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/xmlrpc.php
[Mon Jan 09 11:42:57 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/blog
[Mon Jan 09 11:42:59 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/blog
[Mon Jan 09 11:43:00 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/blogs
[Mon Jan 09 11:43:01 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/drupal
[Mon Jan 09 11:43:02 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/phpgroupware
[Mon Jan 09 11:43:03 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/wordpress
[Mon Jan 09 11:43:05 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/xmlrpc.php
[Mon Jan 09 11:43:06 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/xmlrpc
[Mon Jan 09 11:43:07 2006] [error] [client 202.90.149.5] File does not
exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/xmlsrv



I don't see anything in here that might tell me why large files are
failing to upload. I have been able to upload a file of less than 1
meg, but anything larger than that seems to fail. In FireFox I get a
"Connection reset by the server" message.

[Ben Bacarisse]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 19:46:10 -0800, lawrence k wrote:
[color=blue]
>
> Andy Hassall wrote:[color=green][color=darkred]
>> >Our Linux guy, Matt Clark, checked for errors. He said there were no
>> >errors in the PHP log.[/color]
>>
>> That's one log down, then. What about the others?
>>
>> Hint:
>>[color=darkred]
>> >>>What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?
>> >>
>> >> Various. Almost all of which produce errors, either in the form of
>> >> PHP errors,
>> >>Apache errors or the field in $_FILES.[/color][/color]
>
> I don't suppose you'd know what these error files are typically called, do
> you?[/color]

PHP can be told not to log errors, or if not that, to log them in various
ways (syslog, or Apache's log files, or to a specif one of your choosing).

So first look at php.ini and make sure that "log_errors = On" in there.
On my setup that is all that is needed for PHP errors to be written to
Apache's error_log file. The files called error_log.2 and so on are older
versions made when the logs get "rotated".

The logs have times in them so obviously you need to find the file that
has errors timed at the time you have provoked the error.

Elsewhere in php.ini is a setting to control where errors get logged
(error_log = ...). If you can set this to the name of a file on the
server that you can read, then you won't need to be sent the logs.
Setting it to "syslog" will make PHP error get logged to the same place as
almost everything else on the server and will just make yours very hard to
find, so make sure it is either commented out (errors go to Apache logs)
or it is set to file specifically for PHP errors (the more useful setting).

--
Ben.

[Andy Hassall]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?

On 15 Feb 2006 19:46:10 -0800, "lawrence k" <lkrubner@geoci ties.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Andy Hassall wrote:[color=green][color=darkred]
>> >Our Linux guy, Matt Clark, checked for errors. He said there were no
>> >errors in the PHP log.[/color]
>>
>> That's one log down, then. What about the others?
>>
>> Hint:
>>[color=darkred]
>> >>>What reasons, other than the POST limit, would a large upload fail?
>> >>
>> >> Various. Almost all of which produce errors, either in the form of PHP errors,
>> >>Apache errors or the field in $_FILES.[/color][/color]
>
>I don't suppose you'd know what these error files are typically called,
>do you? I asked our server guy to send me the PHP error logs and he
>said that PHP had only recently invented server logs, and that I
>probably wanted the syslogs instead. Then he send a whole bunch of
>files, with names like ssl_error_log.1 and suexec_log and error_log.2.
>These have line after line that look like this:
>
>[Mon Jan 09 11:18:38 2006] [error] [client 212.126.96.21] File does not
>exist: /home/httpd/vhosts/default/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-pl1[/color]

[snip]
[color=blue]
>I don't see anything in here that might tell me why large files are
>failing to upload.[/color]

So, do the timestamps in the logfile correspond to times you tried to upload
files?

error_log is the main Apache error log file (by default anyway) and is the
most likely one to contain the answer.

error.log.2 would be an old log file, as further indicated by the timestamps
on the errors you posted being several weeks ago.

Upload a file. Check the end of error_log for new messages.
[color=blue]
>I have been able to upload a file of less than 1
>meg, but anything larger than that seems to fail. In FireFox I get a
>"Connection reset by the server" message.[/color]

What I'm trying to steer you towards is the Apache error log (which you seem
to have found now, or at least are close), because I bet you have an error in
there similar to:

[Wed Jan 25 23:14:11 2006] [error] [client 192.168.1.14] Requested
content-length of 3191154 is larger than the configured limit of 3000000,
referer: http://server.localhost/~andyh/file_upload.php

This is the most likely cause of the problem I can think of that matches the
symptoms you describe.

--
Andy Hassall :: andy@andyh.co.u k :: http://www.andyh.co.uk
http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space :: disk and FTP usage analysis tool

[lawrence k]

Re: why would a large not upload, when a small does, when it is still within the POST limit?


Andy Hassall wrote:[color=blue]
> What I'm trying to steer you towards is the Apache error log (which you seem
> to have found now, or at least are close), because I bet you have an error in
> there similar to:
>
> [Wed Jan 25 23:14:11 2006] [error] [client 192.168.1.14] Requested
> content-length of 3191154 is larger than the configured limit of 3000000,
> referer: http://server.localhost/~andyh/file_upload.php
>
> This is the most likely cause of the problem I can think of that matches the
> symptoms you describe.[/color]

That error would make sense, and that is what I first assumed. Still,
we've edited the php.ini file to allow 100 meg uploads, so an error of
that kind is impossible, yes? For an 8 meg PDF file, say?

You can see the output of the phpinfo() command here:

http://www.publicdomainsoftware.org/info.php

Note that it says:

post_max_size 100M

Are there any other settings that would limit the size of uploads?

Thanks for all your help.