set_magic_quotes_runtime
If you're using PHP_CLI SAPI and getting error "Maximum execution time of N seconds exceeded" where N is an integer value, try to call set_time_limit(0) every M seconds or every iteration. For example:
<?php
require_once('db.php');
$stmt = $db->query($sql);
while ($row = $stmt->fetchRow()) {
set_time_limit(0);
// your code here
}
?>
set_time_limit
(PHP 4, PHP 5)
set_time_limit — 设置脚本最大执行时间
说明
void set_time_limit
( int
$seconds
)设置允许脚本运行的时间，单位为秒。如果超过了此设置，脚本返回一个致命的错误。默认值为30秒，或者是在php.ini的max_execution_time被定义的值，如果此值存在。
当此函数被调用时，set_time_limit()会从零开始重新启动超时计数器。换句话说，如果超时默认是30秒，同时，脚本中又设置了25秒，如 set_time_limit(20)。那么，脚本在超时之前可运行总共时间为45秒。
参数
-
seconds -
最大的执行时间，单位为秒。如果设置为0（零），没有时间方面的限制。
返回值
没有返回值。
注释
Warning
当php运行于安全模式时，此功能不能生效。除了关闭安全模式或改变php.ini中的时间限制，没有别的办法。
Note:
set_time_limit()函数和配置指令max_execution_time只影响脚本本身执行的时间。任何发生在诸如使用system()的系统调用，流操作，数据库操作等的脚本执行的最大时间不包括其中，当该脚本已运行。在测量时间是实值的Windows中，情况就不是如此了。
add a note
User Contributed Notes
set_time_limit
mingalevme at gmail dot com
10-May-2012 01:51
ratty at brohoof dot com
25-Nov-2011 12:39
One thing that I wish I had found sooner is, if you're using php-cli and really need to limit the executation time, and if you're in *nix, you can use "timeout" which is part of coreutils.
For example:
timeout 5 /usr/bin/php -q /path/to/script
and it will kill it if it takes longer than 5 seconds.
I had a few quick php scripts I wrote for use with cacti for example.
alexander dot krause at ed-solutions dot de
28-Aug-2011 08:26
A nice workaround to have a real max_execution_time (needs posix and pcntl):
<?php
$pid=pcntl_fork();
if ($pid) {
//long time process
$a=0;
while (true) {
echo "a=$a\n\n";
ob_flush();
flush();
$a++;
shell_exec('sleep 10&');
}
} else {
//time-limit checker
sleep(5);
posix_kill(posix_getppid(),SIGKILL);
}
?>
agvozden at gmail dot com
01-Oct-2010 07:51
If you got something like:
msg: set_time_limit() [function.set-time-limit]: Cannot set time limit in safe mode
try this:
<?php
if( !ini_get('safe_mode') ){
set_time_limit(25);
}
?>
kamazee at gmail dot com
21-Sep-2010 12:39
Keep in mind that for CLI SAPI max_execution_time is hardcoded to 0. So it seems to be changed by ini_set or set_time_limit but it isn't, actually.
The only references I've found to this strange decision are deep in bugtracker (http://bugs.php.net/37306) and in php.ini (comments for 'max_execution_time' directive).
Silver_Knight
22-Mar-2010 11:18
if you are running a script that needs to execute for unknown time, or forever.. you may use
set_time_limit(0);
.....
...
..
.
and at the end of the script use flush() function to tell phpto send out what it has generated.
ravenswd at gmail dot com
15-Aug-2009 10:46
Unfortunately, a script which gets into an infinite loop can produce an alarming amount of output in only a few seconds. I was attempting to debug a script, and I added
<?php
set_time_limit(2);
?>
to the beginning of the script. Unfortunately, even two seconds of run time produced enough output to overload the memory available to my browser.
So, I wrote a short routine which would limit the execution time, and also limit the amount of output returned. I added this to the beginning of my script and it worked perfectly:
<?php
set_time_limit(2);
ob_start(); // buffer output
function shutdown () {
// print only first 2000 characters of output
$out = ob_get_clean();
print substr($out, 0, 2000);
}
register_shutdown_function('shutdown');
?>
BW
16-May-2009 11:08
If you use Apache you can change maximum execution time by .htaccess with this line
php_value max_execution_time 200
cweiske at cweiske dot de
01-Sep-2008 10:38
To get the currently used time, use getrusage()
jonathon dot keogh at gmail dot com
18-Jul-2008 08:07
You can do set_time_limit(0); so that the script will run forever - however this is not recommended and your web server might catch you out with an imposed HTTP timeout (usually around 5 minutes).
You should check your web server's guides for more information about HTTP timeouts.
Jonathon
gib at pganet dot com
19-Jun-2008 06:25
if you are using win2008server, iis7, then before using this option, do not forget to set some variables.
at:
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\
directory, execute the following commands to set the max time to 300 sec. (replace the PHPDIR and PHPEXE with the real ones):
appcmd set config /section:system.webServer/fastCGI /[fullPath='PHPDIR\PHPEXE'].activityTimeout:300
appcmd set config /section:system.webServer/fastCGI /[fullPath='PHPDIR\PHPEXE'].requestTimeout:300
If you want to make double-check that the configuration worked properly, you can check it like this:
appcmd list config -section:system.webServer/fastCgi
AtlantisNet
04-Jun-2008 06:08
In IIS, there is another global timeout setting which will override any PHP settings. You can alter this timeout by following the following instructions:
http://www.iisadmin.co.uk/?p=7
riki1512
04-Jun-2007 11:29
Please note that, under Linux, sleeping time is ignored, but under Windows, it counts as execution time.
php at stock-consulting dot com
11-Jan-2007 10:30
To find out the currently set time limit, use
<?php
ini_get('max_execution_time');
?>
If set_time_limit has been previously called in the script, the result will be the value which was passed to set_time_limit (and not, as the function name "ini_get" appears to suggest, the value from the php.ini file).
bjfieldNO at SPAMgmail dot com
09-Jan-2007 07:53
Timeouts after five minutes in IIS on Windows are caused by an inherited CGI Timeout value of 300 seconds. This is not a PHP problem. The fix is to add custom values for the files or directories that need longer to run.
In IIS 5.0 or 7.0 (beta as of this note), you can change this value on a fairly granular level using IIS Manager, under (roughly) YOURSITE -> Properties -> Home Directory -> Configuration (button) -> Options, but in IIS 6.0, this functionality is turned off (!), so you have to get into the Metabase.
Find the site number in Metabase Explorer (e.g., 12345678), then from CMD prompt:
[get to the scripts dir]
cd C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts
[this for each subdirectory from off the site root]
cscript adsutil.vbs CREATE W3SVC/12345678/root/"MY SUBDIRECTORY" IIsWebDirectory
[this for the file in question]
cscript adsutil.vbs CREATE W3SVC/12345678/root/"MY SUBDIRECTORY"/ILikeToTimeOut.php IIsWebFile
[this to set the timeout]
cscript adsutil.vbs set W3SVC/12345678/root/"MY SUBDIRECTORY"/ILikeToTimeOut.php/CGITimeout "7200"
Note: "7200" is 2 hours in seconds, but can be whatever.
I derived the solution above from this fine article:
http://www.iis-resources.com/modules/AMS/article.php?
storyid=509&page=3
mba_aslam at yahoo dot com
04-Jan-2007 10:50
while setting the set_time_limit(), the duration of sleep() will be ignored in the execution time. The following illustrates:
<?php
set_time_limit(20);
while ($i<=10)
{
echo "i=$i ";
sleep(100);
$i++;
}
?>
Output:
i=0 i=1 i=2 i=3 i=4 i=5 i=6 i=7 i=8 i=9 i=10
27-Sep-2006 08:03
After the error
Fatal error: Maximum execution time of [...] seconds exceeded [...]
has appeared, shut-down functions are still called (afterwards). So, by using register_shutdown_function, you can save data in a session and offer the user a link to start the script again. Then the script can go on with the Session-data.
Example: if you are analyzing a text-file, you can save your analyzed data in a session together with the position of the filepointer (ftell) and start from that possition the next time the user runs the script (fseek).
To determine whether the script was finished or aborted, you simply set a bool false at the beginning and true at the end, and in the shutdown-function you check if it's still false.
konrads dot smelkovs at gmail dot com
31-Mar-2006 11:35
If you are streaming large data from database, it is counted towards the max exec time.
jatin at jatinchimote dot com
01-Mar-2006 03:54
If you set the number of seconds to a very large number (not many ppl do that, but just in case) then php exits with a fatal error like :
Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 1 second exceeded in /path/to/your/script/why.php
[EDIT by danbrown AT php DOT net: This is due to the limit of 32-bit signed integers.]
Cleverduck
28-Feb-2006 06:36
Regarding what 'nytshadow' said, it's important to realize that max-execution-time and the set_time_limit functions measure the time that the CPU is working on the script. If the script blocks, IE: for input, select, sleep, etc., then the time between blocking and returning is NOT measured. This is the same when running scripts from the command line interface. So if you've got a log parser written in PHP that tails a file, that program WILL fail eventually. It just depends how long it takes to read in enough input to process for 30 seconds.
If you're writing a command line script that should run infinitely, setting max-execution-time to 0 (never stop) is HIGHLY recommended.
rycardo74 at gmail dot com
24-Nov-2005 03:52
this work to fine html streaming AND time pass limit
<?php
header('Content-type: text/plain');
echo date("H:m:s"), "\n";
set_time_limit(30);
for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++)
{
echo date("H:m:s"),"\n";
for ($r = 0; $r < 100000; $r++){
$X.= tan(M_LNPI+log(ceil( date("s")*M_PI*M_LNPI+100)));
}
ob_flush();
flush();
}
echo "work! $x";
?>
nytshadow
14-Jul-2005 02:15
This tripped me up for a bit until I read through the ini settings. When doing file uploads, max_execution_time does not affect the time even though the error message indicates the script has exceeded the maximum execution time. The max_input_time determines how much time PHP will wait to receive file data. The default setting is 60 seconds so while I had my max_execution_time set to 300, the script would fail after 60 seconds but report that it had exceeded the max execution time of 300.
Sjoerd van der Hoorn
20-Jun-2005 09:08
When using the set_time_limit() function, the browser will stop after about 30 seconds if it does not get new data. To prevent this, you can send every 10 seconds a little snippet of data (like a single character) to the browser. The code below is tested with both Internet Explorer and Firefox, so it will stay online all the time.
You should also create a file called chatdata.txt which contains the last thing said on a chatbox. Please note that you can also replace this function with a MySQL or other database function...
<?php
set_time_limit(900);
// Start output buffering
ob_start();
$message = "First test message";
$oldmessage = "bla";
// Keep on repeating this to prevent PHP from stopping the script
while (true)
{
$timeoutcounter = 0;
while ($message == $oldmessage)
{
// If 10 seconds elapsed, send a dot (or any other character)
if ($timeoutcounter == 10)
{
echo ".";
flush();
ob_flush();
$timeoutcounter = 0;
}
// Timeout executing
sleep(1);
// Check for a new message
$message = file_get_contents("chatdata.txt");
$timeoutcounter++;
}
// Keep the old message in mind
$oldmessage = $message;
// And send the message to the user
echo "<script>window.alert(\"" . $message . "\");</script>";
// Now, clear the output buffer
flush();
ob_flush();
}
?>
eric pecoraro at shepard com
05-Jun-2005 06:57
I was having trouble with script timeouts in applications where the user prompted long running background actions. I wrote this cURL/CLI background script that solved the problem when making requests from HTTP.
<?php
/* BACKGROUND CLI 1.0
eric pecoraro _at_ shepard dot com - 2005-06-02
Use at your own risk. No warranties expressed or implied.
Include this file at the top of any script to run it in the background
with no time limitations ... e.g., include('background_cli.php');
The script that calls this file should not return output to the browser.
*/
# REQUIREMENTS - cURL and CLI
if ( !function_exists('curl_setopt') OR !function_exists('curl_setopt') ) {
echo 'Requires cURL and CLI installations.' ; exit ;
}
# BUILD PATHS
$script = array_pop(explode('/',$SCRIPT_NAME)) ;
$script_dir = substr($SCRIPT_NAME,0,strlen($SCRIPT_NAME)-strlen($script)) ;
$scriptURL = 'http://'. $HTTP_HOST . $script_dir . "$script" ;
$curlURL = 'http://'. $HTTP_HOST . $script_dir . "$script?runscript=curl" ;
# Indicate that script is being called by CLI
if ( php_sapi_name() == 'cli' ) {
$CLI = true ;
}
# Action if script is being called by cURL_prompt()
if ( $runscript == 'curl' ) {
$cmd = "/usr/local/bin/php ".$PATH_TRANSLATED ; // server location of script to run
exec($cmd) ;
exit;
}
# USER INTERFACE
// User answer after submission.
if ( $post ) {
cURL_prompt($curlURL) ;
echo '<div style="margin:25px;"><title>Background CLI</title>';
echo 'O.K. If all goes well, <b>'.$script.'</b> is working hard in the background with no ' ;
echo 'timeout limitations. <br><br><form action='.$scriptURL.' method=GET>' ;
echo '<input type=submit value=" RESET BACKGROUND CLI "></form></div>' ;
exit ;
}
// Start screen.
if ( !$CLI AND !$runscript ) {
echo '<title>Background CLI</title><div style="margin:25px;">' ;
echo '<form action='.$scriptURL.' method=POST>' ;
echo 'Click to run <b>'.$script.'</b> from the PHP CLI command line, in the background.<br><br>' ;
echo '<input type=hidden value=1 name=post>' ;
echo '<input type=submit value=" RUN IN BACKGROUND "></form></div>' ;
exit ;
}
# cURL URL PROMPT FUNCTION
function cURL_prompt($url_path) {
ob_start(); // start output buffer
$c=curl_init($url_path);
curl_setopt($c, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 2); // drop connection after 2 seconds
curl_exec($c);
curl_close($c);
ob_end_clean(); // discard output buffer
}
?>
php at mightycpa.com
26-Jun-2003 07:30
You may also need to look at Apache's timeout setting (Win32 version for me), I changed max execution time value in php.ini, and still got stopped by Apache's timeout value in the httpd.conf file.
rsallo at gna dot NOSPAM dot es
29-May-2003 10:28
When you are working with IIS, PHP timeout is valid only when it's lower than script timeout defined by IIS.
IIS 5 has a default timeout of 300 seconds. If you need a higher timeout, you also have to change IIS properties. Otherwise, your server will stop your PHP script before it reaches its own timeout.