Version 3.1.xx

[wingman23]

Ive been with IPB now some time and i think its the best forum software around,,, This new version though 3.1.xx i believe is going to cause people lots of problems because all of a sudden its gone from needing 64m server memory to at least 128...

Memory Limit: 128M or better recommended
Your memory limit: 64M.
You can still proceed but we recommend you contact your host and request the memory limit be raised to 128M to prevent possible issues.

Now most of us are on shared hosting, and most shared hosting sets its limits to 64, and like my host, refuse to up it. Ive been with my host some time now, and im very happy with them so dont want to change.

I had a word with them today and they have strongly advised me not to go ahead with the upgrade or my forum will certainly produce errors, if not now but in the near furure, and worse case scenario wont work at all...

As much as it pains me to say this, this is making me think about alternative forum software, simply because, unless i go the VPS route, im going to be stuck with the 3.0.5 version, which of course in the future as things move forward, im going to be stuck with an outdated forum.

I really think it was a mistake to make the new version need all this extra resources and will possibly limit the people who can use it

regards

Wingman

[stoo2000]

It's not that 3.1.x requires more memory, it's simply to let you know that the setting is lower than the default PHP setting. Memory management was changed with PHP 5.2 and since then many web hosts have not updated their PHP settings to reflect this.

[stoo2000]

I'll add this too:

If your memory limit is set below the default limit, any other PHP application you use will possibly have issues too. It almost sounds like your web host is overselling and cramming as many sites on a server as possible.

[Ikadon]

Your host may be okay. Mine, for example, is, although the limit is 50mb literally everything works without any problems at all. I asked my host before and they have the best support available here, still there is no managed-hosting-package that offers more scriptpower.

It depends on your host, the hardware your host is using and how he's calculating this stuff. It really does! I worried too, I really worried.

[wingman23]

This was part of the answer i got from my host (hostgator)

64 MB is indeed our limit and we cannot increase it beyond that because that would start requiring a lot more CPU resources than can be comfortably used by an account on a shared server. 64 MB is pretty common for shared hosting and may actually be higher than what many hosts allow by default.... Running a script that requires 128mb of memory on a server that only allots 64mb is likely to cause errors, or even not work at all. Of course you are more than welcome to give it a try, but i strongly recommend that you dont risk it

Its hair raising enough upgrading, without these conflicting reports. :blink:

[AndyF]

Quite a few hosts will not have it at 128mb which is the recommended (and default, I believe) for php5.2 :)

As per your topic in the support forum, you could always try it at 64mb (as I did on one host as they would not go above that) , I did not have problems, although I was partly expecting some, but I did try a localhost test with it at 64 and it did work. Your mileage may vary though, to coin a phrase. :)

Assuming you do not want to move hosts, as I said in your support topic, take a full backup (both database and filesystem) and then upgrade. Remember to just do Board on its own, and then come back and do the applications.

Just my thoughts anyway, although the obvious solution is to use a host that offers a memory_limit of 128mb.

[Mark]

The latest version doesn't particularly require more than previous, however we added the warning since some functions, such as upgrades, importing skins and importing languages, can be quite memory intensive and occasionally fail if the memory limit is too low.
128M is a safe limit; you probably won't need that much, but it is the default value in PHP and so is a good number to go by.

Their reply though slightly concerns me as it indicates a misunderstanding of what the limit is. Upping the limit won't suddenly cause usage of "more CPU resources" (particularly we're talking about memory here), it just will be allowed to run up to that limit.

You may be interested to know that the limit, most of the time, can be overridden. Try adding this line of code to the bottom of your conf_global.php file:

ini_set( 'memory_limit', '128M' );

If that doesn't work, try asking your host again. Usually (particularly with bigger hosting companies) I find they're just giving you a stock response. It is sometimes helpful to ask to speak to someone with a bit more knowledge on the subject, who may be able to make an exception for you.

If they still say no, to be honest, I would expect 64M would be fine, assuming you're using the English language (character set conversion is probably the most expensive thing for memory usage).
Alternatively, you may want to consider alternative hosting options. Did you know we at IPS provide hosting?

[Planetby]

Any good host shouldn't have a problem upping the memory to 128 and most already know this needs done but don't until you ask for it, my own host had already done so on updating to php 5.2 and imho if any host refuses then its time to go shopping for a more flexible/ better host....at the end of the day it is your money keeping them in business ;)

[bfarber]

Let's just ensure this is clarified here...

IP.Board 3.1 does not use more memory than 3.0. In fact, many areas are now more memory-friendly than before.

Most pages in IP.Board consume between 6MB and 12MB of memory in my local profiling. This will vary depending on your data set, board activity, and so on of course. But this is my baseline for a localhost installation with no activity.

Now, that being said, as Mark said when you are doing particularly memory hungry tasks such as importing a skin or language pack, more memory is needed. This is just a fact of the technology we're working with, and one that is very difficult to work around. We have added the memory notice to IPB 3.1 so that you can be aware if your memory limit is below the PHP default memory limit of 128MB. In such situations, it may be possible that you hit an out of memory error, and thus we wanted to notify you of this up front.

MOST hosts are fine with setting the PHP default of 128MB. Some hosts are not, and that is their choice. Usually you will still be able to function fine, especially if you're not frequently dealing with memory-intensive tasks. We are simply trying to inform our customers of any potential issues we can before they run into them, is all.

[wingman23]

just to conclude this topic, i had my board updated today by Jason H and he did a great job, so thanks Jason.. The board is fine on 64m, in fact im sure its faster...

so panic over now :whistle: