Just a Memo

Increase File Upload Size Limit

I am working on a project that requires high-level users to be able to upload more than the default WordPress file-upload limit. I’ve done this in the past but I have set it to a multi-domain setting. Meaning that it encompasses all of my domains being hosted in a particular Dreamhost user account.

I wanted to only increase the file size (again) to something much larger than I’ve had before but only for a particular subdomain; as I was using it for staging. Here’s the process that I took to make that happen. ((These steps are a paraphrase from Dreamhost’s Wiki article.))

For all domains being hosted by the user:

  1. Be sure that you have PHP 5.3 (FastCGI) if you can, or 5.2 if you need to use the older version, for your domain.

    increase-file-upload-size-01

    You may check this in your Dreamhost management panel > Domains > Manage Domains > Edit (for your particular domain).

  2. With the above setting set, execute the following command via Bash/SSH: 
    mkdir ~/.php
mkdir -p ~/.php/5.3
touch ~/.php/5.3/phprc
  3. Edit your phprc file with your favorite editor, enter the following settings and save: 
    upload_max_filesize = 16M
post_max_size = 16M

Refresh your WordPress file-upload page and you should now see the update and increase in your file-upload size limit. If you would like to only increase the setting on a particular domain like me, follow the steps below.

Domain-only increase

  1. Presuming that you have set your environment to PHP 5.3 (FastCGI) as in step #1 above, first create a cgi-bin folder for your domain 
    mkdir $HOME/example.com/cgi-bin
  2. Clone the default php.ini file 
    cp /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini $HOME/example.com/cgi-bin/php.ini
  3. Create the script wrapper by executing the following in your shell (SSH/Bash) 
    cat << EOF > $HOME/example.com/cgi-bin/php-wrapper.fcgi
#!/bin/sh
exec /dh/cgi-system/php5.cgi \$*
EOF
  4. Set the permissions to your files and directories; execute the following also in your shell: 
    chmod 755 $HOME/example.com/cgi-bin
chmod 755 $HOME/example.com/cgi-bin/php-wrapper.fcgi
chmod 640 $HOME/example.com/cgi-bin/php.ini
  5. Set up your .htaccess file located in your document root $HOME/example.com/.htaccess, and include the following: 
    Options +ExecCGI
AddHandler php5-cgi .php
Action php-cgi /cgi-bin/php-wrapper.fcgi
Action php5-cgi /cgi-bin/php-wrapper.fcgi
  6. Last but not least, update your cloned php.ini file (the one residing in your $HOME/example.com/cgi-bin/php.ini) with the size increase. For example: 
    upload_max_filesize = 16M
post_max_size = 16M

The above will allow you to run your PHP files with the custom wrapper we have created, and increase your file-upload size limit for your PHP applications (e.g. WordPress). Hope that helps!

Sherwin

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