{"id":396,"date":"2018-06-27T19:08:30","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T11:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/?p=396"},"modified":"2018-06-27T19:08:30","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T11:08:30","slug":"configuring-nginx-and-php-7-stack-in-linux-to-increase-or-decrease-file-upload-size-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/configuring-nginx-and-php-7-stack-in-linux-to-increase-or-decrease-file-upload-size-limit\/","title":{"rendered":"Configuring Nginx and PHP 7 stack in Linux to increase or decrease file upload size limit"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHP<\/a> web applications can utilize Nginx as the reverse proxy server<\/a> and PHP FPM<\/a> as the upstream server. Whenever you encounter HTTP file upload issues, limitation in file upload size is one common cause. <\/p>\n

This post shows how to adjust the file upload size limit for your application running on a Nginx-PHP stack in Linux.<\/p>\n

Two sets of file upload size limit configuration to apply for Nginx-PHP LEMP stacks<\/h2>\n

The following digram is an illustration of how the browser communicates with the application server in a typical LEMP stack<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"client<\/p>\n

As shown above, there are two machines that process HTTP requests received from HTTP clients. Therefore, we need to apply two sets of file upload size limit configuration - one for Nginx<\/a> and the other for the PHP-FPM server<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Configuring file upload size limit for Nginx<\/h2>\n

Firstly, let's look at how we can configure file upload size limit for Nginx.<\/p>\n

Locating the Nginx configuration file<\/h3>\n

A typical installation of Nginx associates the nginx<\/code> binary with the PATH variable. Therefore, you can locate the Nginx configuration file by running the following command in your terminal program:<\/p>\n

\r\nsudo nginx -t\r\n<\/pre>\n
When I run this on my Raspberry Pi 3 running Codiad Web IDE<\/a>, I got the following output:<\/p>\n
\r\nnginx: the configuration file \/etc\/nginx\/nginx.conf syntax is ok\r\nnginx: configuration file \/etc\/nginx\/nginx.conf test is successful\r\n<\/pre>\n
As can be seen, nginx<\/code> reported that it is taking configurations from \/etc\/nginx\/nginx.conf<\/code><\/strong>. Given that, we know where to look at for adjusting the file upload size limit for Nginx.<\/p>\n
Configuring the file upload size limit for Nginx via client_max_body_size<\/code> directive<\/h3>\n
Once you had figured out the location of the configuration file that you wish to edit, you can then proceed to add in the client_max_body_size<\/code><\/strong><\/a> directive with a value that you desire. <\/p>\n
This directive defines the maximum allowed size of client request body. In addition, the default value is 1 Megabyte<\/strong>. When we set a value of 0<\/code><\/strong>, we disable the checking of the client request body size. <\/p>\n
Since a file is included as the client request body, we will adjust the file upload size via the client_max_body_size<\/code><\/strong> directive.<\/p>\n
Universal file upload size limit for HTTP requests made to all upstream servers<\/h3>\n
In case you want to allow a file smaller than 8 Megabytes to get through your Nginx server for all upstream servers, you will apply the client_max_body_size<\/code> directive inside the http<\/code><\/a> block:<\/p>\n
\r\nhttp {\r\n    # ...\r\n    client_max_body_size 8m;\r\n    # ...\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
Site specific file upload size limit<\/h3>\n
In case you want to apply another file upload size limit for HTTP request made to a specific upstream server, you need to look for the server block for that site. For example, the following configuration allows any file smaller than 1 Gigabytes to pass Nginx for my Raspberry Pi 3 file sharing website<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\r\nserver {\r\n    \r\n    # ...     \r\n    listen 443;\r\n    server_name  ps.yourdomain.com;\r\n    client_max_body_size 1024m;\r\n    # ...\r\n\r\n} \r\n<\/pre>\n
Uri specific file upload size limit<\/h3>\n
You can also apply the file upload size limit to a specific Uri. For example, the following configuration will apply a file upload size limit of 2 Gigabytes for HTTP requests sent to http:\/\/www.adomain.com\/upload:<\/p>\n
\r\nserver {\r\n    \r\n    # ...     \r\n    listen 80;\r\n    server_name  www.adomain.com;\r\n    \r\n    location \/upload {\r\n        # ...\r\n        client_max_body_size 2048m;\r\n        # ...\r\n    }\r\n\r\n    # ...\r\n\r\n} \r\n<\/pre>\n
Configuring file upload size limit for PHP FPM 7<\/h2>\n
Lastly, let's look at how to configure file upload size limit for PHP FPM 7. <\/p>\n
Locating the php.ini configuration file<\/h3>\n
Before you proceed to configure the file upload size limit for PHP FPM 7, you need to find the php.ini<\/code><\/strong> configuration file. In general, you can run the following command to look for php.ini<\/code><\/strong>:<\/p>\n
\r\nsudo find \/ -name php.ini\r\n<\/pre>\n
After the command completes, you may find output similar to the following in your terminal screen:<\/p>\n
\r\n\/etc\/php\/7.0\/fpm\/php.ini\r\n\/etc\/php\/7.0\/cli\/php.ini\r\n<\/pre>\n
In this case, we will edit \/etc\/php\/7.0\/fpm\/php.ini<\/code><\/strong> to configure the file upload size limit for PHP FPM<\/strong> 7.<\/p>\n
Configuring file upload size limit for PHP FPM 7 via upload_max_filesize<\/code> and post_max_size<\/code><\/h3>\n
In order to change file upload size limit for PHP, we need to change two settings - upload_max_filesize<\/code><\/strong> and post_max_size<\/code><\/strong>. <\/p>\n
The default value for upload_max_filesize<\/code><\/strong> is 2 Megabytes<\/strong>. <\/p>\n
The default value for post_max_size<\/code><\/strong> is 8 Megabytes<\/strong>. <\/p>\n
Note that the post_max_size<\/code><\/strong> has to be larger than upload_max_filesize<\/code><\/strong> for large files. <\/p>\n
In addition to those two variables, you may want to set max_input_time<\/code><\/strong> to a higher value for large files. In this case, your clients will be given more time to upload files to your PHP FPM 7 server.<\/p>\n
Universal file upload size limit for HTTP requests made to all PHP applications served by PHP FPM 7<\/h3>\n
To apply a common file upload size limit for all PHP applications served by PHP FPM 7, you will edit the values for upload_max_filesize<\/code><\/strong> and post_max_size<\/code><\/strong> from \/etc\/php\/7.0\/fpm\/php.ini<\/code><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
For example, if we want to change the file upload size limit to 200 Megabytes, we will first open up \/etc\/php\/7.0\/fpm\/php.ini<\/code>. After the editor loads the file, we will then change the lines with upload_max_filesize<\/code><\/strong> and post_max_size<\/code><\/strong> variables to the following:<\/p>\n
\r\nupload_max_filesize = 200M\r\npost_max_size = 202M\r\n<\/pre>\n
Application specific file upload size limit<\/h3>\n
To adjust the file upload size limit for different PHP applications served by PHP FPM 7, we can do so via the ini_set<\/a> function.<\/p>\n
For example, if we want to change the file upload size limit to 300 Megabytes, we will include the following PHP codes in a running script:<\/p>\n
\r\n@ini_set( 'upload_max_size' , '300M' );\r\n@ini_set( 'post_max_size', '302M');\r\n<\/pre>\n
Restarting Nginx and PHP FPM 7 for the new file upload size limit to take effect<\/h2>\n
Once you had included the new file upload size limit for your Nginx server and PHP FPM server, restart them:<\/p>\n
\r\nsudo systemctl restart php7.0-fpm.service\r\nsudo systemctl restart nginx.service\r\n<\/pre>\n
After your Nginx server and PHP FPM server had restarted, the new file upload size limit will take effect.<\/p>\n\n