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Description
bool mail
( string $to
, string $subject
, string $message
[, string $additional_headers
[, string $additional_parameters
]] )
Parameters
-
to
-
Receiver, or receivers of the mail.
The formatting of this string must comply with
» RFC 2822. Some examples are:
- user@example.com
- user@example.com, anotheruser@example.com
- User <user@example.com>
- User <user@example.com>, Another User <anotheruser@example.com>
-
subject
-
Subject of the email to be sent.
-
message
-
Message to be sent.
Each line should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n). Lines should not be
larger than 70 characters.
Caution
(Windows only) When PHP is talking to a SMTP server directly, if a full
stop is found on the start of a line, it is removed. To counter-act this,
replace these occurrences with a double dot.
<?php
$text = str_replace("\n.", "\n..", $text);
?>
-
additional_headers (optional)
-
String to be inserted at the end of the email header.
This is typically used to add extra headers (From, Cc, and Bcc).
Multiple extra headers should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n).
Validate parameter not to be injected unwanted headers by attackers.
Note:
When sending mail, the mail must contain
a From header. This can be set with the
additional_headers parameter, or a default
can be set in php.ini.
Failing to do this will result in an error
message similar to Warning: mail(): "sendmail_from" not
set in php.ini or custom "From:" header missing.
The From header sets also
Return-Path under Windows.
Note:
If messages are not received, try using a LF (\n) only.
Some Unix mail transfer agents (most notably
» qmail) replace LF by CRLF
automatically (which leads to doubling CR if CRLF is used).
This should be a last resort, as it does not comply with
» RFC 2822.
-
additional_parameters (optional)
-
The additional_parameters parameter
can be used to pass additional flags as command line options to the
program configured to be used when sending mail, as defined by the
sendmail_path configuration setting. For example,
this can be used to set the envelope sender address when using
sendmail with the -f sendmail option.
This parameter is escaped by escapeshellcmd internally
to prevent command execution. escapeshellcmd prevents
command execution, but allows to add addtional parameters. For security reason,
this parameter should be validated.
Since escapeshellcmd is applied automatically, some characters
that are allowed as email addresses by internet RFCs cannot be used. Programs
that are required to use these characters mail cannot be used.
The user that the webserver runs as should be added as a trusted user to the
sendmail configuration to prevent a 'X-Warning' header from being added
to the message when the envelope sender (-f) is set using this method.
For sendmail users, this file is /etc/mail/trusted-users.
Return Values
Returns TRUE if the mail was successfully accepted for delivery, FALSE otherwise.
It is important to note that just because the mail was accepted for delivery,
it does NOT mean the mail will actually reach the intended destination.
Examples
Example #1 Sending mail.
Using mail to send a simple email:
<?php
// The message
$message = "Line 1\r\nLine 2\r\nLine 3";
// In case any of our lines are larger than 70 characters, we should use wordwrap()
$message = wordwrap($message, 70, "\r\n");
// Send
mail('caffeinated@example.com', 'My Subject', $message);
?>
Example #2 Sending mail with extra headers.
The addition of basic headers, telling the MUA
the From and Reply-To addresses:
<?php
$to = 'nobody@example.com';
$subject = 'the subject';
$message = 'hello';
$headers = 'From: webmaster@example.com' . "\r\n" .
'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com' . "\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
?>
Example #3 Sending mail with an additional command line parameter.
The additional_parameters parameter
can be used to pass an additional parameter to the program configured
to use when sending mail using the sendmail_path.
<?php
mail('nobody@example.com', 'the subject', 'the message', null,
'-fwebmaster@example.com');
?>
Example #4 Sending HTML email
It is also possible to send HTML email with mail.
<?php
// multiple recipients
$to = 'aidan@example.com' . ', '; // note the comma
$to .= 'wez@example.com';
// subject
$subject = 'Birthday Reminders for August';
// message
$message = '
<html>
<head>
<title>Birthday Reminders for August</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Here are the birthdays upcoming in August!</p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Person</th><th>Day</th><th>Month</th><th>Year</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Joe</td><td>3rd</td><td>August</td><td>1970</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sally</td><td>17th</td><td>August</td><td>1973</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
';
// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
$headers = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
// Additional headers
$headers .= 'To: Mary <mary@example.com>, Kelly <kelly@example.com>' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'From: Birthday Reminder <birthday@example.com>' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Cc: birthdayarchive@example.com' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Bcc: birthdaycheck@example.com' . "\r\n";
// Mail it
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
?>
Note:
If intending to send HTML or otherwise Complex mails, it is recommended
to use the PEAR package » PEAR::Mail_Mime.
Notes
Note:
The Windows implementation of mail differs in many
ways from the Unix implementation. First, it doesn't use a local binary
for composing messages but only operates on direct sockets which means a
MTA is needed listening on a network socket (which
can either on the localhost or a remote machine).
Second, the custom headers like
From:,
Cc:,
Bcc: and
Date: are
not interpreted by the
MTA in the first place, but are parsed by PHP.
As such, the to parameter should not be an address
in the form of "Something <someone@example.com>". The
mail command may not parse this properly while talking with
the MTA.
Note:
It is worth noting that the mail function is not
suitable for larger volumes of email in a loop. This function opens
and closes an SMTP socket for each email, which is not very efficient.
For the sending of large amounts of email, see the
» PEAR::Mail, and
» PEAR::Mail_Queue packages.
Note:
The following RFCs may be useful:
» RFC 1896,
» RFC 2045,
» RFC 2046,
» RFC 2047,
» RFC 2048,
» RFC 2049, and
» RFC 2822.
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