Comment 144 for bug 235200

On Thu 2011-04-07 (14:28), <email address hidden> wrote:

> I found further data, I am uncertain of the upload status. However,
> all related download bugs included are fixed.
>
> I have downloaded a very large number of 4.7GB by HTTP in firefox files since this release.
> However, my biggest uploads have never hit the 4GB limit yet.

Download was never a problem with firefox, but the upload (HTTP POST) was.
And the bug is still there with firefox 3.6.16 (tested on Ubuntu 8.04.4).

> issues with upload. The standard workaround is to use an external
> program for file-specific transfers when handling uploads over 4GB.

This workaround does not work for user who are not allowed to install
software. Besides this, "fixing bugs" by substituting the software with
other software is a bad idea.

> Many server advanced server software has limitations of 2GB or 4GB.
> This usually isn't related to the HTTP server software itself, but the
> additional programs and libraries used by the PHP or other CGI .
>
> Since many servers don't support the upload of large files by HTTP, this
> could be an issue. You need to verify that it can function.

I have written an own webserver for this kind of file transfer, which
already is an ubuntu package, see
http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/fex

> Here is an outline for test of verification of presence of bug.
> 1. Set up on your controlled home network, loopback device, or VM, an HTTP server verified to handle large files that does not utilize external programs for any file transfer handling.
>
> 2. Set it up to have a Forms based page that simply tells the server to
> upload the specific file from the client without having any external
> programs handle the file. (External programs may handle the filename
> and forms to process them and relay them back to the server.)
>
> 3. Try to upload of large file to said local server utilizing Firefox.
>
> 4. Check the file in directory of server, to see if it uploaded
> properly.

I have testet it with a 2 GB file and in the fexserver log I see no
connect at all. Uploading files < 2 GB are ok:

CONNECT:8080 2011-04-18 11:58:28 diaspora.rus.uni-stuttgart.de 129.69.13.139 [26471_0]
POST /fup HTTP/1.1
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.16) Gecko/20110323 Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.6.16
Referer: http://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de:8080/fup
Content-Length: 2,098,221

You can test it by yourself with:
http://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de:8080/fup?skey=57e5ae9d103e4f19622bf4322f1a8609

--
Ullrich Horlacher Server- und Arbeitsplatzsysteme
Rechenzentrum E-Mail: <email address hidden>
Universitaet Stuttgart Tel: ++49-711-685-65868
Allmandring 30 Fax: ++49-711-682357
70550 Stuttgart (Germany) WWW: http://www.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/