diff --git a/include/environment.php b/include/environment.php
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+++ b/include/environment.php
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * @file include/environment.php
+ * @brief Functions related to system/environment tasks.
+ *
+ * This file contains some functions to check the environment/system.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * @brief Get some upload related limits from php.ini.
+ *
+ * This function returns values from php.ini like \b post_max_size,
+ * \b max_file_uploads, \b upload_max_filesize.
+ *
+ * @return array associative array
+ *   * \e int \b post_max_size the maximum size of a complete POST in bytes
+ *   * \e int \b upload_max_filesize the maximum size of one file in bytes
+ *   * \e int \b max_file_uploads maximum number of files in one POST
+ *   * \e int \b max_upload_filesize min(post_max_size, upload_max_filesize)
+ */
+function getPhpiniUploadLimits() {
+	$ret = array();
+
+	// max size of the complete POST
+	$ret['post_max_size'] = phpiniSizeToBytes(ini_get('post_max_size'));
+	// max size of one file
+	$ret['upload_max_filesize'] = phpiniSizeToBytes(ini_get('upload_max_filesize'));
+	// catch a configuration error where post_max_size < upload_max_filesize
+	$ret['max_upload_filesize'] = min(
+			$ret['post_max_size'],
+			$ret['upload_max_filesize']
+			);
+	// maximum number of files in one POST
+	$ret['max_file_uploads'] = intval(ini_get('max_file_uploads'));
+
+	return $ret;
+}
+
+/**
+ * @brief Parses php_ini size settings to bytes.
+ *
+ * This function parses common size setting from php.ini files to bytes.
+ * e.g. post_max_size = 8M ==> 8388608
+ *
+ * \note This method does not recognise other human readable formats like
+ * 8MB, etc.
+ *
+ * @todo Make this function more universal useable. MB, T, etc.
+ *
+ * @param string $val value from php.ini e.g. 2M, 8M
+ * @return int size in bytes
+ */
+function phpiniSizeToBytes($val) {
+	$val = trim($val);
+	$unit = strtolower($val[strlen($val)-1]);
+	switch($unit) {
+		case 'g':
+			$val *= 1024;
+		case 'm':
+			$val *= 1024;
+		case 'k':
+			$val *= 1024;
+	}
+
+	return (int)$val;
+}
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