Question: Seems that `max_execution_time` is `0` but `memory_limit` is `-1`.

For `max_input_time` is it `0` or `-1` or both?

Answer: 
The absolute maximum value is the limit of the `long` type in C:

```
long max_input_time; member in struct:_php_core_globals 

```

See: <http://lxr.php.net/search?q=max_input_time&defs=&refs=&path=&hist=&project=PHP_5_4>

The effective maximum value is `2147483647`, to maintain interoperability. It may be more on a specific platform or implementaion, but this is the most common, 32bit max.

As you can also see at a few spots in the source (ie `if (PG(max_input_time) != -1)`), the value `-1` is treated as equivalent to maximum. `0` would be treated as zero.

**Documentation**

* Runtime configuration - <http://www.php.net/manual/en/info.configuration.php#ini.max-input-time>
* PHP source code browser search for "max\_execution\_time" - <http://lxr.php.net/search?q=max_input_time&defs=&refs=&path=&hist=&project=PHP_5_4>
The [`max_input_time`](http://www.php.net/manual/en/info.configuration.php#ini.max-input-time) determines how much time should be allowed to retrieve data from POST, GET. You need to set logical value, the default setting of 60 seconds works fine in most cases.

Note that default setting is 60 seconds so if you get `max_execution_time` set to 300, the script would fail after 60 seconds but report that it had exceeded the max execution time of 300.