How to set a maximum execution time for a mysql query?

Question

I would like to set a maximum execution time for sql queries like set_time_limit() in php. How can I do ?

Solution 1

I thought it has been around a little longer, but according to this,

MySQL 5.7.4 introduces the ability to set server side execution time limits, specified in milliseconds, for top level read-only SELECT statements.

SELECT 
/*+ MAX_EXECUTION_TIME(1000) */ --in milliseconds
* 
FROM table;

Note that this only works for read-only SELECT statements.

Update: This variable was added in MySQL 5.7.4 and renamed to max_execution_time in MySQL 5.7.8. (source)

Solution 2

If you're using the mysql native driver (common since php 5.3), and the mysqli extension, you can accomplish this with an asynchronous query:

<?php

// Heres an example query that will take a long time to execute.
$sql = "
    select *
    from information_schema.tables t1
    join information_schema.tables t2
    join information_schema.tables t3
    join information_schema.tables t4
    join information_schema.tables t5
    join information_schema.tables t6
    join information_schema.tables t7
    join information_schema.tables t8
";

$mysqli = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'root', '');
$mysqli->query($sql, MYSQLI_ASYNC | MYSQLI_USE_RESULT);
$links = $errors = $reject = [];
$links[] = $mysqli;

// wait up to 1.5 seconds
$seconds = 1;
$microseconds = 500000;

$timeStart = microtime(true);

if (mysqli_poll($links, $errors, $reject, $seconds, $microseconds) > 0) {
    echo "query finished executing. now we start fetching the data rows over the network...\n";
    $result = $mysqli->reap_async_query();
    if ($result) {
        while ($row = $result->fetch_row()) {
            // print_r($row);
            if (microtime(true) - $timeStart > 1.5) {
                // we exceeded our time limit in the middle of fetching our result set.
                echo "timed out while fetching results\n";
                var_dump($mysqli->close());
                break;
            }
        }
    }
} else {
    echo "timed out while waiting for query to execute\n";

    // kill the thread to stop the query from continuing to execute on 
    // the server, because we are abandoning it.
    var_dump($mysqli->kill($mysqli->thread_id));
    var_dump($mysqli->close());
}

The flags I'm giving to mysqli_query accomplish important things. It tells the client driver to enable asynchronous mode, while forces us to use more verbose code, but lets us use a timeout(and also issue concurrent queries if you want!). The other flag tells the client not to buffer the entire result set into memory.

By default, php configures its mysql client libraries to fetch the entire result set of your query into memory before it lets your php code start accessing rows in the result. This can take a long time to transfer a large result. We disable it, otherwise we risk that we might time out while waiting for the buffering to complete.

Note that there's two places where we need to check for exceeding a time limit:

• The actual query execution
• while fetching the results(data)

You can accomplish similar in the PDO and regular mysql extension. They don't support asynchronous queries, so you can't set a timeout on the query execution time. However, they do support unbuffered result sets, and so you can at least implement a timeout on the fetching of the data.

For many queries, mysql is able to start streaming the results to you almost immediately, and so unbuffered queries alone will allow you to somewhat effectively implement timeouts on certain queries. For example, a

select * from tbl_with_1billion_rows

can start streaming rows right away, but,

select sum(foo) from tbl_with_1billion_rows

needs to process the entire table before it can start returning the first row to you. This latter case is where the timeout on an asynchronous query will save you. It will also save you from plain old deadlocks and other stuff.

ps - I didn't include any timeout logic on the connection itself.

Solution 3

Please rewrite your query like

select /*+ MAX_EXECUTION_TIME(1000) */ * from table

---

this statement will kill your query after the specified time

Solution 4

You can find the answer on this other S.O. question:

MySQL - can I limit the maximum time allowed for a query to run?

a cron job that runs every second on your database server, connecting and doing something like this:

• SHOW PROCESSLIST
• Find all connections with a query time larger than your maximum desired time
• Run KILL [process id] for each of those processes

View more solutions

Comments

[Amy Neville]

This is incredible.....I can't wait to try it.....great for graph data queries for example....

[mgutt]

Will it be active only for this query or all following queries sharing the same session (process id)?

[Westy92]

It only applies to the query in which it is specified. If you go to my cited source, you can set a global or session max_execution_time.

[mgutt]

Yes I read that, but there is not explanation what session means because for example KILL explicitly needs the modifier QUERY: dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/kill.html And in this answer session was explained as an other word for connection: stackoverflow.com/a/8800971/318765

[TheSatinKnight]

this won't stop a mysql query that's in process on the sql server. an excellent solution to a different question, though.

[Peter V. Mørch]

I think there is an error in this answer. When I try putting MAX_EXECUTION_TIME=1000 inside the SELECT itself, that yields a ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax error. set MAX_EXECUTION_TIME=1000; first, then the SELECT statement works. Now it is set in the session, and probably needs to be cleared again with set MAX_EXECUTION_TIME=0; Also, it doesn't look like that syntax is supported in the select syntax documentation

[Manu Mohan Thekkedath]

you will have to rewrite that query like select /*+ MAX_EXECUTION_TIME(1000) */ * from table

[Bill Karwin]

A similar feature was introduced in Percona Server 5.6.13 (a branch based on MySQL 5.6): percona.com/doc/percona-server/5.6/management/…

[kurdtpage]

Can you explain what this does? Does it kill the query after 1 second returning nothing, or is it nice and return the partial result set after 1 second?

[Juliano]

@kurdtpage it kills the query and the client will error out. Note that this is only "execution time", if the query has executed inside MySQL and is currently only sending results to the client, it will run for as long as it wants

[Gregory Cosmo Haun]

I edited the answer with @ManuMohanThekkedath 's suggestion, confirmed here: dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/…