MAIL(3) 								 1								   MAIL(3)

mail - Send mail

SYNOPSIS

       bool mail (string  $to, string  $subject, string  $message, [string  $additional_headers], [string  $additional_parameters])

DESCRIPTION

	Sends an email.

PARAMETERS

	      o $to
		- Receiver, or receivers of the mail.  The formatting of this string must comply with RFC 2822. Some examples are:

		     ouser@example.com

		     ouser@example.com, anotheruser@example.com

		     oUser <user@example.com>

		     oUser <user@example.com>, Another User <anotheruser@example.com>

	      o $subject
		- Subject of the email to be sent.

	      Caution

		      Subject must satisfy RFC 2047.

	      o $message
		- Message to be sent.  Each line should be separated with a CRLF (
). 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("
.", "
..", $text);
		     ?>

	      o $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 (
). If outside data are used to compose this header, the data should be sani-
		tized so that no unwanted headers could be injected.

	      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 (
) 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.

	      o $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 enve-
		lope sender address when using sendmail with the -f sendmail option.  This parameter is escaped by escapeshellcmd(3) internally to
		prevent command execution. escapeshellcmd(3) prevents command execution, but allows to add addtional parameters. For security rea-
		sons, it is recommended for the user to sanitize this parameter to avoid adding unwanted parameters to the shell  command.   Since
		escapeshellcmd(3)  is  applied automatically, some characters that are allowed as email addresses by internet RFCs cannot be used.
		mail(3) can not allow such characters, so in programs where the use of such characters is required, alternative means  of  sending
		emails	(such as using a framework or a library) is recommended.  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.

CHANGELOG

       +--------+---------------------------------------------------+
       |Version |						    |
       |	|						    |
       |	|		     Description		    |
       |	|						    |
       +--------+---------------------------------------------------+
       | 4.2.3	|						    |
       |	|						    |
       |	|  The $additional_parameters parameter is disabled |
       |	| in safe_mode and the mail(3) function will expose |
       |	| a warning message and return FALSE when used.     |
       |	|						    |
       +--------+---------------------------------------------------+
EXAMPLES

       Example #1

	      Sending mail.

	       Using mail(3) to send a simple email:

	      <?php
	      // The message
	      $message = "Line 1
Line 2
Line 3";

	      // In case any of our lines are larger than 70 characters, we should use wordwrap()
	      $message = wordwrap($message, 70, "
");

	      // 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' . "
" .
		  'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com' . "
" .
		  '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(3).

	      <?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' . "
";
	      $headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "
";

	      // Additional headers
	      $headers .= 'To: Mary <mary@example.com>, Kelly <kelly@example.com>' . "
";
	      $headers .= 'From: Birthday Reminder <birthday@example.com>' . "
";
	      $headers .= 'Cc: birthdayarchive@example.com' . "
";
	      $headers .= 'Bcc: birthdaycheck@example.com' . "
";

	      // 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(3) 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(3) 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.

SEE ALSO

       imap_mail(3), PEAR::Mail, PEAR::Mail_Mime.

PHP Documentation Group 														   MAIL(3)