PHP settings

PHP version

Choose from PHP-FPM branches installed on the server. Core Panel shows end-of-life warnings for obsolete versions. Use an old branch only as a temporary migration measure; use a currently supported version for new sites.

Each browser terminal session for a PHP site places the site's selected PHP CLI first in PATH , keeping CLI commands aligned with the PHP-FPM runtime that serves the website.

Per-site PHP configuration

Configure:

• Memory limit.
• Upload maximum size.
• POST maximum size.
• Maximum execution time.
• Maximum input variables.
• Input parsing time and simultaneous file uploads.
• Application timezone.
• PHP error display and logging behavior.

Upload and POST limits

Upload maximum (upload_max_filesize, MB) sets the largest individual file PHP will accept. Allowed values range from 1 MB through 2048 MB.

The POST maximum (post_max_size) must be at least as large as the upload limit. New websites use a 64 MB upload limit and an 80 MB POST limit so multipart form fields have additional room.

If PHP permits an upload but Nginx rejects it first, increase client_max_body_size under Overview → Advanced Nginx configuration .

Request processing

Input parsing time (max_input_time) limits how many seconds PHP may spend parsing request data, including uploads and form submissions. The default is 120 seconds and the allowed range is 10–1800 seconds. Increase it for large uploads or slow client connections. This setting is separate from the script execution limit.

Simultaneous file uploads (max_file_uploads) limits how many files one request can submit. The default is 20 files and the allowed range is 1–100 files. This is a per-request limit, not a storage quota.

Application timezone

Application timezone (date.timezone) uses an IANA timezone name such as UTC, Asia/Karachi, or Europe/London. The selector automatically includes the timezones supported by the browser.

Choose Use server default to inherit the server's PHP timezone. Core Panel validates selected timezones using its bundled IANA timezone database, so validation does not depend on distribution-specific timezone packages.

PHP error handling

Core Panel enables complete PHP error reporting with error_reporting=2147483647. Choose where those errors appear:

• Development error display controls display_errors. Enable it only while diagnosing a development website.
• Display startup errors controls display_startup_errors and is available only when development error display is enabled.
• Log PHP errors controls log_errors and is enabled by default.

For production websites, keep PHP error logging enabled and both browser-display options disabled. Displayed errors can expose filesystem paths, configuration details, queries, or other sensitive information to visitors.

How Core Panel applies the settings

Core Panel writes the selected values to a protected .user.ini in the website's document root. A typical configuration includes:

upload_max_filesize=64M
post_max_size=80M
max_input_time=120
max_file_uploads=20
error_reporting=2147483647
display_errors=Off
display_startup_errors=Off
log_errors=On
date.timezone=Asia/Karachi

PHP-FPM may take up to five minutes to refresh .user.ini. Application code can also impose stricter upload, timeout, or file-count limits.

Upgrade behavior

Existing websites keep their saved upload and POST limits. Core Panel supplies safe defaults for newly introduced settings when it reads an older website configuration or processes a job queued by an older panel version:

• Input parsing time: 120 seconds.
• Simultaneous uploads: 20 files.
• Error logging: enabled.
• Application timezone: inherited from the server.
• Startup-error display: disabled.

No manual data migration is required.

Supported Linux platforms

These settings use portable PHP-FPM .user.ini directives and do not depend on distribution-specific service names, filesystem layouts, or web-server users. They are supported on AMD64 and ARM64 for:

• Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04, and 26.04.
• Debian 12 and 13.
• AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and RHEL 9 and 10.
• Fedora 43 and 44.