php - Is there a limit like max_input_vars in versions before 5.3.9?

Question

It seems like there is a problem with older PHP versions and more than 1000 input fields in one form (see this question).

If I run a webserver with an older PHP version, is there a limit to the maximum number of form elements in (one nesting level) like it is controlled by the php.ini directive max_input_vars since PHP 5.3.9?

Or is there no limit in older versions?

What happens if I set this variable anyway in older versions in php.ini or .htaccess?

I noticed, that on my server I run PHP 5.3.3-7+squeeze17 which also already has the directive max_input_vars.

How exactly did older versions behave?

Answer 1

It seems there is confusion:

http://www.flowstopper.org/2012/12/my-php-wtf-of-day-maxinputvars.html

Although the docs say: "Available since PHP 5.3.9."

http://php.net/manual/en/info.configuration.php

If I had to guess I would say there was always a limit, and it just got pulled out into the config/documentation in 5.3.9