If you are new to PHP or just need to refresh your skills, this is the place to start. This series of tutorials will give you the basic knowledge you will need to create a simple PHP website.

PHP is a reflective programming language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages.[1] PHP is used mainly in server-side scripting, but can be used from a command line interface or in standalone graphical applications. Textual User Interfaces can also be created using ncurses.

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LXXVIII. Mail Functions

Introduction

The mail() function allows you to send mail.

Requirements

For the Mail functions to be available, PHP must have access to the sendmail binary on your system during compile time. If you use another mail program, such as qmail or postfix, be sure to use the appropriate sendmail wrappers that come with them. PHP will first look for sendmail in your PATH, and then in the following: /usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/etc:/etc:/usr/ucblib:/usr/lib. It's highly recommended to have sendmail available from your PATH. Also, the user that compiled PHP must have permission to access the sendmail binary.

Installation

There is no installation needed to use these functions; they are part of the PHP core.

Runtime Configuration

The behaviour of these functions is affected by settings in php.ini.

Table 1. Mail configuration options

Name	Default	Changeable	Changelog
SMTP	"localhost"	PHP_INI_ALL
smtp_port	"25"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.3.0.
sendmail_from	NULL	PHP_INI_ALL
sendmail_path	NULL	PHP_INI_SYSTEM

For further details and definitions of the PHP_INI_* constants, see the Appendix H.

Here's a short explanation of the configuration directives.

SMTP string

Used under Windows only: host name or IP address of the SMTP server PHP should use for mail sent with the mail() function.

smtp_port int

Used under Windows only: Number of the port to connect to the server specified with the SMTP setting when sending mail with mail(); defaults to 25. Only available since PHP 4.3.0.

sendmail_from string

Which "From:" mail address should be used in mail sent from PHP under Windows. This directive also sets the "Return-Path:" header.

sendmail_path string

Where the sendmail program can be found, usually /usr/sbin/sendmail or /usr/lib/sendmail. configure does an honest attempt of locating this one for you and set a default, but if it fails, you can set it here.

Systems not using sendmail should set this directive to the sendmail wrapper/replacement their mail system offers, if any. For example, Qmail users can normally set it to /var/qmail/bin/sendmail or /var/qmail/bin/qmail-inject.

qmail-inject does not require any option to process mail correctly.

This directive works also under Windows. If set, smtp, smtp_port and sendmail_from are ignored and the specified command is executed.

Resource Types

This extension has no resource types defined.

Predefined Constants

This extension has no constants defined.

Table of Contents
ezmlm_hash -- Calculate the hash value needed by EZMLM
mail -- Send mail

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