how to increase apache 2 uri length limit

Question

i am getting this error in my apache2 log

[Tue Apr 06 09:00:56 2010] [error] [client A.B.C.D] request failed: URI too long (longer than 8190)

what setting can i change to increase this limit?

Answer 1

The best answer is "don't do that". See http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/misc/urllength.html for an explanation of why.

If you need to pass that much data, use POST, not GET.

Answer 2

You would have to set DEFAULT_LIMIT_REQUEST_LINE constant inside of the apache source code, and recompile apache. This constant is in the httpd.h header file.

After this is done you can decrease request limit using the LimitRequestLine directive.

See the http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/core.html#limitrequestline for more info.