Recommended PHP Limit?

[TechieGeek]

I ran this test on my server and I successfully got PHP up to 512 MB. (I didn't want to try 1GB since the host might get mad). I know IPS recommends 128MB as the PHP memory limit, but is there any advantage to raising that? And would there be a disadvantage, for example a runaway process that eats up more memory? (I'm changing the memory limit through the htaccess in the forum directory).

[c u l8er]

Hello,
I decided to do a little looking myself. I found a good topic discussing this on jaguar PC a server hosting company or something. You can check out the response here...

And if you don't want to go here is a quote:

That PHP limit is what a single page can use and just to process the PHP instructions. You'll need memory for many other things too, such as the operating system, the apache server, and the database. You'll also like to be able to serve more than one page at a time.

That limit is a safety net to keep a bad PHP script from cripling your site. It is a hard limit that kills off any script that tries to go above, not a way to manage script performance. So no, it is not advised to mess with that memory limit and it can only hurt performance, not help it. If you have a specific script that needs more for a good reason (image processing comes to mind), you're advised to make the setting inside that specific script.

Hope that helps.

[Peter F.]

The 128M limit is a recommendation from the team who create PHP for users using PHP5 and above. I don't see any value in increasing the memory limit beyond that value unless a specific script needs it.

[.Ian]

I have left my servers at 128mb - can see little point in increasing it.

[Collin S.]

PHP5's default is 128M, which is why we suggest it. Some hosts configure 64M as the default. In most situations, IP.Board 3.1 will function at this value, however for the initial installation and editing of language packs, you may run into issues.

[Feld0]

PHP5's default is 128M, which is why we suggest it. Some hosts configure 64M as the default. In most situations, IP.Board 3.1 will function at this value, however for the initial installation and editing of language packs, you may run into issues.

I have a rather active and quickly-growing forum on a hosting account with a 64 MB PHP limit, and I haven't run into any memory issues yet, even with a couple hundred people on at a time. Thought I should throw my own experience in.

[Robulosity2]

The memory limit is also per process, not in total. You basicly need to decide on your needs what that should be set at

Are you going to run a highly modified board with lots of hooks/apps/loaders and encoded functions? Probably want to use 128-160mb.. If your just going to run a few base parts with "light" modifications, 64-96 is usually more than sufficient, as pointed out however if your board is larger when it comes time to update you'll either want to increase it a bit or run some of the updates via ssh/mysql console to avoid running into memory exhaustion issues