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eComEvo
Asked: 2012-07-04 16:50:30 +0800 CST

PHP output buffer settings ignored by server

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I have been trying to flush the output of certain scripts to the browser on demand, but they do not work on our production server.

For instance, I tried running the "Phoca Changing Collation tool" (find it on Google) and I don't see any output until the script finishes executing.

I've tried immediately flushing the buffer on other scripts that work fine on any server but this one using the following code:

echo "something";
ob_flush();
flush();

Setting "ob_implicit_flush(1);" doesn't help either.

The server is Apache 2.2.21 with PHP 5.2.17 running on Linux. You can see our php.ini file here if that will help: http://www.smallfiles.org/download/1123/php.ini.html

This isn't the only problem we are having with the server ignoring in-script directives. The server also ignores timeout coding such as:

ini_set('max_execution_time', 900*60);

AND

set_time_limit(86400);

Script always times out at the php.ini default.

Doesn't seem to matter if script is executed in IE or Firefox.

Tried "ini_set('zlib.output_compression_level', 'Off');" and checked that it is "Off" in the php.ini file. The code "apache_setenv('no-gzip', 1);" causes a fatal error so tried uploading a .htaccess file with the "mod_gzip_on No" directive. Neither helps.

Tried running Apache as fcgi and suphp, but same results.

Server is NOT in safe mode.

Pullin ma hair out!

php apache-2.2

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    To fix the output buffer problem, I needed to turn off gzip compression inside the .htaccess file.

    To fix the timeout issue, I checked my Apache log files and found it wasn't PHP but in the Apache configuration: The timeout specified has expired: ap_content_length_filter: apr_bucket_read() failed

    Had to increase the Apache timeout to prevent this problem. This apparently arises from Apache waiting for more content to hit the buffer before the timeout resets.

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