How much memory will this PHP Script need?

Question

I'm trying to use a WordPress Plugin to backup my database and files but it keeps running out of memory. How much memory will this script need to finish and how much should I ask for from my hosting provider? Here is the log output: (the script has 3 minutes to run before my hosting provider kills it but that is more than enough) [INFO] BackWPup version 3.0.13; WordPress version 3.6; A project of Inpsyde GmbH developed by Daniel Hüsken [INFO] This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. [INFO] Blog url: http://www.nsuchy.tk/ [INFO] BackWPup job: Back It Up Before It Is Too Late; DBDUMP+FILE [INFO] BackWPup cron: 0 3 * * *; Sun, 18 Aug 2013 @ 20:15 [INFO] BackWPup job started manually [INFO] PHP ver.: 5.3.27-nfsn1; apache2handler; FreeBSD [INFO] Maximum script execution time is 180 seconds [INFO] MySQL ver.: 5.3.12-MariaDB [INFO] curl ver.: 7.31.0; OpenSSL/1.0.1e [INFO] Temp folder is: /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-ee3f5-temp/ [INFO] Logfile folder is: /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-eb255-logs/ [INFO] Backup type is: archive [INFO] Backup file is: /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-ee3f5-temp/backwpup_24fe7a_2013-08-18_20-15-56.tar.gz [18-Aug-2013 20:15:56] 1. Try to dump database … [18-Aug-2013 20:15:56] Connected to database nsuchy on nsuchy.db [18-Aug-2013 20:15:56] Dump database table "sendmail_lordlinus" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_commentmeta" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_comments" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_links" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_options" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_postmeta" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_posts" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_term_relationships" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_term_taxonomy" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_terms" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_usermeta" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_users" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfBadLeechers" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfBlocks" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfBlocksAdv" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfConfig" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfCrawlers" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfFileMods" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfHits" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfHoover" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfIssues" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfLeechers" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfLockedOut" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfLocs" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfLogins" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfNet404s" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfReverseCache" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfScanners" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfStatus" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfThrottleLog" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Dump database table "wp_wfVulnScanners" [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Added database dump "nsuchy.sql.gz" with 294.56 kB to backup file list [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] Database dump done! [18-Aug-2013 20:15:57] 1. Trying to make a list of folders to back up … [18-Aug-2013 20:16:03] 501 folders to back up. [18-Aug-2013 20:16:03] 1. Trying to create backup archive … [18-Aug-2013 20:16:03] Compression method is TarGz [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] Backup archive created. [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] Archive size is 23.65 MB. [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] 3910 Files with 49.24 MB in Archive. [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] 1. Trying to send backup with e-mail… [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] Sending e-mail to theusernameiwantistaken@gmail.com… [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] WARNING: fopen() [function.fopen]: SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid/gid is 219666/219666 is not allowed to access /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-ee3f5-temp/521163e8dbb11 owned by uid/gid 25000/25000 [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] WARNING: fopen(/f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-ee3f5-temp/521163e8dbb11/body) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] WARNING: fseek() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] WARNING: fwrite() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 20:16:40] WARNING: fclose() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 19:16:41 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 3407873 bytes) in /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/plugins/backwpup/sdk/SwiftMailer/classes/Swift/Mime/SimpleMimeEntity.php on line 706 [18-Aug-2013 20:16:41] ERROR: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 3407873 bytes) [18-Aug-2013 20:16:41] Script stopped! Will start again. [18-Aug-2013 20:16:41] 2. Trying to send backup with e-mail… [18-Aug-2013 20:16:41] Sending e-mail to theusernameiwantistaken@gmail.com… [18-Aug-2013 20:16:42] WARNING: fopen() [function.fopen]: SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid/gid is 219666/219666 is not allowed to access /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-ee3f5-temp/521163e9f41b5 owned by uid/gid 25000/25000 [18-Aug-2013 20:16:42] WARNING: fopen(/f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-ee3f5-temp/521163e9f41b5/body) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory [18-Aug-2013 20:16:42] WARNING: fseek() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 20:16:42] WARNING: fwrite() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 20:16:42] WARNING: fclose() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 19:16:42 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 3932161 bytes) in /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/plugins/backwpup/sdk/SwiftMailer/classes/Swift/Mime/SimpleMimeEntity.php on line 706 [18-Aug-2013 20:16:42] ERROR: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 3932161 bytes) [18-Aug-2013 20:16:42] Script stopped! Will start again. [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] 3. Trying to send backup with e-mail… [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] Sending e-mail to theusernameiwantistaken@gmail.com… [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] WARNING: fopen() [function.fopen]: SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid/gid is 219666/219666 is not allowed to access /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-ee3f5-temp/521163eb57dbc owned by uid/gid 25000/25000 [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] WARNING: fopen(/f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/uploads/backwpup-ee3f5-temp/521163eb57dbc/body) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] WARNING: fseek() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] WARNING: fwrite() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] WARNING: fclose() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given [18-Aug-2013 19:16:43 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 3932161 bytes) in /f5/nsuchy/public/wp-content/plugins/backwpup/sdk/SwiftMailer/classes/Swift/Mime/SimpleMimeEntity.php on line 706 [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] ERROR: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 3932161 bytes) [18-Aug-2013 20:16:43] Script stopped! Will start again. [18-Aug-2013 20:16:44] Job has ended with errors in 48 seconds. You must resolve the errors for correct execution.

Answer 1

According to logs it tries to allocate 4 MB more memory from totally allowed 32 MB, which from my point of view is less than recommended for WP. Nobody knows how much memory this plugin will require later, for next step. Try to use other backup format - it might help a bit. There are reports, that some users are experiencing same problem with 256 MB too.