Client side Upload Canceling
On modern browsers (FF >= 3.6, Chrome >= 19.0, Opera >= 12.0, and buggy on Safari), you can use the HTML5 File API. When the value of a file input changes, this API will allow you to check whether the file size is within your requirements. Of course, this, as well as MAX_FILE_SIZE, can be tampered with so always use server side validation.
<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" action="upload.php">
<input type="file" name="file" id="file" />
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
<script>
document.forms[0].addEventListener('submit', function( evt ) {
var file = document.getElementById('file').files[0];
if(file && file.size < 10485760) { // 10 MB (this size is in bytes)
//Submit form
} else {
//Prevent default and display error
evt.preventDefault();
}
}, false);
</script>
Server Side Upload Canceling
On the server side, it is impossible to stop an upload from happening from PHP because once PHP has been invoked the upload has already completed. If you are trying to save bandwidth, you can deny uploads from the server side with the ini setting upload_max_filesize. The trouble with this is this applies to all uploads so you’ll have to pick something liberal that works for all of your uploads. The use of MAX_FILE_SIZE has been discussed in other answers. I suggest reading the manual on it. Do know that it, along with anything else client side (including the javascript check), can be tampered with so you should always have server side (PHP) validation.
PHP Validation
On the server side you should validate that the file is within the size restrictions (because everything up to this point except for the INI setting could be tampered with). You can use the $_FILES array to find out the upload size. (Docs on the contents of $_FILES can be found below the MAX_FILE_SIZE docs)
upload.php
<?php
if(isset($_FILES['file'])) {
if($_FILES['file']['size'] > 10485760) { //10 MB (size is also in bytes)
// File too big
} else {
// File within size restrictions
}
}