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<div class="refnamediv">
<h1 class="refname">mail</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">mail</span> — <span class="dc-title">Send mail</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.mail-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">bool</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>mail</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$to</code></span>
, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$subject</code></span>
, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$message</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$additional_headers</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$additional_parameters</code></span>
]] )</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
Sends an email.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.mail-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">to</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Receiver, or receivers of the mail.
</p>
<p class="para">
The formatting of this string must comply with
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822" class="link external">» RFC 2822</a>. Some examples are:
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member">user@example.com</li>
<li class="member">user@example.com, anotheruser@example.com</li>
<li class="member">User <user@example.com></li>
<li class="member">User <user@example.com>, Another User <anotheruser@example.com></li>
</ul>
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">subject</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Subject of the email to be sent.
</p>
<div class="caution"><strong class="caution">Caution</strong>
<p class="para">
Subject must satisfy <a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2047" class="link external">» RFC 2047</a>.
</p>
</div>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">message</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Message to be sent.
</p>
<p class="para">
Each line should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n). Lines should not be
larger than 70 characters.
</p>
<div class="caution"><strong class="caution">Caution</strong>
<p class="para">
(Windows only) When PHP is talking to a SMTP server directly, if a full
stop is found on the start of a line, it is removed. To counter-act this,
replace these occurrences with a double dot.
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />$text </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">str_replace</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n."</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\n.."</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$text</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">additional_headers</code></em> (optional)</span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
String to be inserted at the end of the email header.
</p>
<p class="para">
This is typically used to add extra headers (From, Cc, and Bcc).
Multiple extra headers should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n).
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
When sending mail, the mail <em class="emphasis">must</em> contain
a <em>From</em> header. This can be set with the
<em><code class="parameter">additional_headers</code></em> parameter, or a default
can be set in <var class="filename">php.ini</var>.
</p>
<p class="para">
Failing to do this will result in an error
message similar to <em>Warning: mail(): "sendmail_from" not
set in php.ini or custom "From:" header missing</em>.
The <em>From</em> header sets also
<em>Return-Path</em> under Windows.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
If messages are not received, try using a LF (\n) only.
Some Unix mail transfer agents (most notably
<a href="http://www.qmail.org/" class="link external">» qmail</a>) 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
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822" class="link external">» RFC 2822</a>.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">additional_parameters</code></em> (optional)</span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The <em><code class="parameter">additional_parameters</code></em> 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
<em>sendmail_path</em> configuration setting. For example,
this can be used to set the envelope sender address when using
sendmail with the <em>-f</em> sendmail option.
</p>
<p class="para">
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 <var class="filename">/etc/mail/trusted-users</var>.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.mail-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns <strong><code>TRUE</code></strong> if the mail was successfully accepted for delivery, <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> otherwise.
</p>
<p class="para">
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.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 changelog" id="refsect1-function.mail-changelog">
<h3 class="title">Changelog</h3>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable informaltable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>4.3.0 (Windows only)</td>
<td>
All custom headers (like From, Cc, Bcc and Date) are supported, and are
not case-sensitive.
(As custom headers are not interpreted by the MTA in the first place,
but are parsed by PHP, PHP < 4.3 only supported the Cc header element
and was case-sensitive).
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4.2.3</td>
<td>
The <em><code class="parameter">additional_parameters</code></em> parameter is disabled in
<a href="ini.sect.safe-mode.html#ini.safe-mode" class="link">safe_mode</a> and the
<span class="function"><strong>mail()</strong></span> function will expose a warning message
and return <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> when used.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4.0.5</td>
<td>
The <em><code class="parameter">additional_parameters</code></em> parameter was added.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.mail-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-3380">
<p><strong>Example #1 Sending mail.</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
Using <span class="function"><strong>mail()</strong></span> to send a simple email:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// The message<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$message </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Line 1\r\nLine 2\r\nLine 3"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// In case any of our lines are larger than 70 characters, we should use wordwrap()<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$message </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">wordwrap</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$message</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">70</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Send<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">mail</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'caffeinated@example.com'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'My Subject'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$message</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-3381">
<p><strong>Example #2 Sending mail with extra headers.</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
The addition of basic headers, telling the MUA
the From and Reply-To addresses:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />$to </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'nobody@example.com'</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$subject </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'the subject'</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$message </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'hello'</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'From: webmaster@example.com' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n" </span><span style="color: #007700">.<br /> </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n" </span><span style="color: #007700">.<br /> </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'X-Mailer: PHP/' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">phpversion</span><span style="color: #007700">();<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">mail</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$to</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$subject</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$message</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-3382">
<p><strong>Example #3 Sending mail with an additional command line parameter.</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
The <em><code class="parameter">additional_parameters</code></em> parameter
can be used to pass an additional parameter to the program configured
to use when sending mail using the <em>sendmail_path</em>.
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />mail</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'nobody@example.com'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'the subject'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'the message'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">null</span><span style="color: #007700">,<br /> </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'-fwebmaster@example.com'</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-3383">
<p><strong>Example #4 Sending HTML email</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
It is also possible to send HTML email with <span class="function"><strong>mail()</strong></span>.
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// multiple recipients<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$to </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'aidan@example.com' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">', '</span><span style="color: #007700">; </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// note the comma<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$to </span><span style="color: #007700">.= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'wez@example.com'</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// subject<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$subject </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'Birthday Reminders for August'</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// message<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$message </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'<br /><html><br /><head><br /> <title>Birthday Reminders for August</title><br /></head><br /><body><br /> <p>Here are the birthdays upcoming in August!</p><br /> <table><br /> <tr><br /> <th>Person</th><th>Day</th><th>Month</th><th>Year</th><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td>Joe</td><td>3rd</td><td>August</td><td>1970</td><br /> </tr><br /> <tr><br /> <td>Sally</td><td>17th</td><td>August</td><td>1973</td><br /> </tr><br /> </table><br /></body><br /></html><br />'</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'MIME-Version: 1.0' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers </span><span style="color: #007700">.= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Additional headers<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers </span><span style="color: #007700">.= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'To: Mary <mary@example.com>, Kelly <kelly@example.com>' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers </span><span style="color: #007700">.= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'From: Birthday Reminder <birthday@example.com>' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers </span><span style="color: #007700">.= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'Cc: birthdayarchive@example.com' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers </span><span style="color: #007700">.= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'Bcc: birthdaycheck@example.com' </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"\r\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Mail it<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">mail</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$to</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$subject</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$message</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$headers</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
<p class="para">
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
If intending to send HTML or otherwise Complex mails, it is recommended
to use the PEAR package <a href="http://pear.php.net/package/Mail_Mime" class="link external">» PEAR::Mail_Mime</a>.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 notes" id="refsect1-function.mail-notes">
<h3 class="title">Notes</h3>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
The Windows implementation of <span class="function"><strong>mail()</strong></span> 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
<em>MTA</em> is needed listening on a network socket (which
can either on the localhost or a remote machine).
</p>
<p class="para">
Second, the custom headers like
<em>From:</em>,
<em>Cc:</em>,
<em>Bcc:</em> and
<em>Date:</em> are
<em class="emphasis">not</em> interpreted by the
<em>MTA</em> in the first place, but are parsed by PHP.
</p>
<p class="para">
As such, the <em><code class="parameter">to</code></em> 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.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
It is worth noting that the <span class="function"><strong>mail()</strong></span> 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.
</p>
<p class="para">
For the sending of large amounts of email, see the
<a href="http://pear.php.net/package/Mail" class="link external">» PEAR::Mail</a>, and
<a href="http://pear.php.net/package/Mail_Queue" class="link external">» PEAR::Mail_Queue</a> packages.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
The following RFCs may be useful:
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1896" class="link external">» RFC 1896</a>,
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2045" class="link external">» RFC 2045</a>,
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2046" class="link external">» RFC 2046</a>,
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2047" class="link external">» RFC 2047</a>,
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2048" class="link external">» RFC 2048</a>,
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2049" class="link external">» RFC 2049</a>, and
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822" class="link external">» RFC 2822</a>.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.mail-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.imap-mail.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">imap_mail()</a> - Send an email message</span></li>
<li class="member"><a href="http://pear.php.net/package/Mail" class="link external">» PEAR::Mail</a></li>
<li class="member"><a href="http://pear.php.net/package/Mail_Mime" class="link external">» PEAR::Mail_Mime</a></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
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