PHP mail attachment max size

[php_nub_qq]

Hi, I recently made a function to my website where users can download a full chat history with a certain friend of theirs instead of just showing the whole history in the browser and most probably crashing it ( if they've chatted for quite some time ). So everything works well except the fact that I can't send large files. I suppose the largest I could send was 10mb or something like that ( could be lying ). Anyway that's way less than I need so it doesn't really matter. What I need is to be able to send around 50mb of data and I believe the changes that need to be done are a matter of the mailing server. Unfortunately I'm using a hosting service and I have limited access to those things. Can anyone help me out?

 

EDIT: I just saw that the allowed size is in the error:

 

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 76903277 bytes)

 

EDIT 2: Actually the allowed is larger than the filesize, now I'm confused

[jazzman1]

Chunk the data to 1MB and start the php mail function to send 1 MB in every 1 min with sleep ( int $seconds ).

 

Also, you need to know what is the value of max execution time provided by your hosting provider in the php.ini file. 

[php_nub_qq]

  On 5/21/2013 at 11:29 PM, jazzman1 said:

Chunk the data to 1MB and start the php mail function to send 1 MB in every 1 min with sleep ( int $seconds ).

 

Also, you need to know what is the value of max execution time provided by your hosting provider in the php.ini file. 

 

How do I chunk it to 1MB and wouldn't that send 50 emails ( for 50 mb file ) ?

 

Here's the code as well:

$file = 'ads2.zip'; // 60mb file for testing purposes
$file_name = $file; // file name and file path match
$to      = 'myemail@asd.com';
$subject = 'the subject';
$from = 'dgd@dgd.dgd';
	$message = "<h1>some HTML</h1>";
	$headers = "From: $from";
	 
	// boundary 
	$semi_rand = md5(time()); 
	$mime_boundary = "==Multipart_Boundary_x{$semi_rand}x"; 
	 
	// headers for attachment 
	$headers .= "\nMIME-Version: 1.0\n" . "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;\n" . " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary}\""; 
	 
	// multipart boundary 
	$message = "This is a multi-part message in MIME format.\n\n" . "--{$mime_boundary}\n" . "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"utf-8\"\n" . "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n\n" . $message . "\n\n"; 
	$message .= "--{$mime_boundary}\n";
	 
	// preparing attachments
		$content = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($file)));
		$message .= "Content-Type: {\"application/octet-stream\"};\n" . " name=\"$file_name\"\n" . 
		"Content-Disposition: attachment;\n" . " filename=\"$file_name\"\n" . 
		"Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n\n" . $content . "\n\n";
	 
	// send

	$ok = @mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers); 
	if ($ok) { 
		echo "<p>mail sent to $to!</p>"; 
	} else { 
		echo "<p>mail could not be sent!</p>"; 
	}  

the code is gotten from here https://gist.github.com/optikalefx/5149537 and was modified a little

[jazzman1]

 

 

  Quote

.....and wouldn't that send 50 emails ( for 50 mb file )

 

I know that's not very practical, but you need to be aware about few things.

 

Most of the share hosting providers limits their outcoming mail size to 25 - 30 MB, on the other hand there is also a limit per email message you receive (incoming mail size)

 

Many mail providers and ISPs will reject mail larger than 5-10 MB.

[php_nub_qq]

Well is there any way I can verify the given maximum size of the outgoing emails? I also believe that the error I'm getting isn't related to this limit, and I'd really need help with that too. Thank you!

[jazzman1]

Well, don't use the mail function then, just provide them a link to download their chat history from the server. 

[php_nub_qq]

That's not an option because the conversation is in the database and if I were to create a file on demand I would not be able to detect when it's download has been finished thus I cannot delete it, and even if I could if the user for some reason loses the file he has to generate a new one and that's just wasting resources and bandwidth, which is limited in my case. I just need to figure what's causing this error and how to prevent it and I'll manage from then on.

 

 

REMINDER: Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 76903277 bytes)

[mac_gyver]

the error mentions an amount of memory larger than the file because the output from base64_encode is about 2/3 larger than the original.

[php_nub_qq]

What can I do about this :?

[mac_gyver]

break the file up into smaller pieces and send one at a time or don't try to send it as an email attachment.

[Eiseth]

Because your script is taking too long to process due to larger files

 

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.memory-limit

 

 

Either adding this at the top of your page

ini_set('memory_limit', '-1');

or refactor your code

[php_nub_qq]

  On 5/22/2013 at 2:08 PM, Eiseth said:

Because your script is taking too long to process due to larger files

 

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.memory-limit

 

 

Either adding this at the top of your page

ini_set('memory_limit', '-1');

or refactor your code

 

when I do 

 

ini_set('memory_limit', '-1');

 

there is no error but the mail doesn't get sent, which I suppose is due to the mail size limit. I will contact my hosting provider to see if I can negotiate something. Thank you guys for all the help!