# Disable memory buffer for file uploads **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [March 23, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-memory-buffer-for-file-uploads/204833 "2011-03-23T01:18:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@luislavena](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luislavena)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-memory-buffer-for-file-uploads/204833/1 "2011-03-23T01:18:22Z")
Hi, I’m using the latest version of Nginx, PHP/PHP-FPM on a Linux machine with 2GB of ram and plenty of hard disk space. My problem is this: when I upload a large (2GB, for exemple) file on my Web site, Nginx buffers the whole file in memory, and this will be come a huge problem as we’re going to have a lot of users uploading large files in a near future. So I gave a try to the Nginx upload module as I thought it would write directly to disk and skip memory, but no, I still have the same issue. I’m currently looking at solutions like Plupload (Flash uploader) that can chunk an upload in many small files - but the perfect solution would be to be able to tell Nginx to write the client body directly to file, and never keep it in memory. Is it possible? Thanks! Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Disable memory buffer for file uploads](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,185014,185014#msg-185014)** > > Hi, I'm using the latest version of Nginx, PHP/PHP-FPM on a Linux machine with 2GB of ram and plenty of hard disk space. My problem is this: when I upload a large (2GB, for exemple) file on my Web site, Nginx buffers the whole file in memory, and... ---
**Author:** ![akaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7ba0ec/32.png) [@akaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/akaris)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-memory-buffer-for-file-uploads/204833/2 "2011-03-23T04:39:45Z")
On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 08:17:28PM -0400, akaris wrote: Hi there, > My problem is this: when I upload a large (2GB, for exemple) file on my > Web site, Nginx buffers the whole file in memory, That shouldn’t happen unless your client\_body\_buffer\_size is really really big. > **[GitHub - nginxinc/nginx-wiki: ARCHIVED -- Source for the now archived NGINX Wiki...](https://github.com/nginxinc/nginx-wiki)** > > ARCHIVED -- Source for the now archived NGINX Wiki section of https://www.nginx.com nginx will only buffer in memory up to the value of client\_body\_buffer\_size; beyond that, it will buffer to disk. How do you determine that nginx buffers the whole file in memory? All the best, ## f Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![akaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7ba0ec/32.png) [@akaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/akaris)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-memory-buffer-for-file-uploads/204833/3 "2011-03-23T04:43:29Z")
I have a question, will write to the disk much more slower than using memory? So my question is : when users upload large files, should I use large memory for client\_body\_buffer\_size or little memory. when users upload small files, should i use large memory for client\_body\_buffer\_size or little memory. And in this situation, when he finishes uploading, will the content be remove when the memory for client\_body\_buffer\_size is full, and so that new uploaded files could use the memory. ---
**Author:** ![akaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7ba0ec/32.png) [@akaris](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/akaris)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/disable-memory-buffer-for-file-uploads/204833/4 "2011-03-23T11:17:38Z")
On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 11:43:08AM +0800, Space Lee wrote: Hi there, > I have a question, will write to the disk much more slower than using memory? Usually, yes. But the full sequence is more like “read from network”, “write to buffer”, “read from buffer”, “write to fastcgi server or http server or whatever nginx sends the request to”. Will the write to disk (buffer) be much slower than the read from network? If you have enough memory (and a good OS disk cache), the “read from buffer” may effectively be “from memory” anyway. > So my question is : > when users upload large files, should I use large memory for > client\_body\_buffer\_size or little memory. > when users upload small files, should i use large memory for > client\_body\_buffer\_size or little memory. How much time will it take for your user to complete the upload http request, for nginx to buffer it, pass it on, and to have it processed by whatever nginx passes it on to? In that time, how many other user upload-requests will start? (= N) And how much total real memory do you want to use for upload-request buffers? (= M) M/N is a rough guide to the size you want for client\_body\_buffer\_size. You don’t want your upload-request buffers to push the memory use above the real memory available. > And in this situation, when he finishes uploading, will the content be remove > when the memory for client\_body\_buffer\_size is full, and so that new uploaded > files could use the memory. The buffer will eventually be released. From a capacity point of view, expect it not to be released until the http connection is closed by the server. (Exactly when it is released is less important – for capacity planning, assume the worst 🙂 All the best, ## f Francis D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)