Last updated: Fri, 26 Sep 2008

set_time_limit

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

set_time_limit — Limits the maximum execution time

Description

void set_time_limit ( int $seconds )

Set the number of seconds a script is allowed to run. If this is reached, the script returns a fatal error. The default limit is 30 seconds or, if it exists, the max_execution_time value defined in the php.ini.

When called, set_time_limit() restarts the timeout counter from zero. In other words, if the timeout is the default 30 seconds, and 25 seconds into script execution a call such as set_time_limit(20) is made, the script will run for a total of 45 seconds before timing out.

Parameters

seconds: The maximum execution time, in seconds. If set to zero, no time limit is imposed.

Return Values

No value is returned.

Notes

Warning

This function has no effect when PHP is running in safe mode. There is no workaround other than turning off safe mode or changing the time limit in the php.ini.

Note: The set_time_limit() function and the configuration directive max_execution_time only affect 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(), stream operations, database queries, etc. is not included when determining the maximum time that the script has been running.


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 09:08


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
05-Jun-2007 02:29


Please note that, under Linux, sleeping time is ignored, but under Windows, it counts as execution time.

php at stock-consulting dot com
12-Jan-2007 02:30


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
10-Jan-2007 11:53


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
05-Jan-2007 02:50


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 11:03


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
01-Apr-2006 04:35


If you are streaming large data from database, it is counted towards the max exec time.

jatin at jatinchimote dot com
02-Mar-2006 07:54


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 10:36


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
25-Nov-2005 07:52


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 05:15


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
21-Jun-2005 12:08


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
06-Jun-2005 09:57


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 10:30


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
30-May-2003 01:28


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.

add a note

sys_get_temp_dir

set_magic_quotes_runtime