mail

Description

Mail() automatically mails the message specified in message to the receiver specified in to. Multiple recipients can be specified by putting a comma between each address in to.

mail() returns TRUE if the mail is sucessfully sent, FALSE otherwise.

Example 1. Sending mail. mail("[email protected]", "My Subject", "Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3");

If a fourth string argument is passed, this string is inserted at the end of the header. This is typically used to add extra headers. Multiple extra headers are separated with a newline.

If the fifth parameter is supplied, PHP will add this data to the call to the mailer. This is useful when setting the correct Return-Path header when using sendmail.

Example 2. Sending mail with extra headers. mail("[email protected]", "the subject", $message, "From: webmaster@$SERVER_NAME\nReply-To: webmaster@$SERVER_NAME\nX-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion());

With the fifth parameter you can set additional command line parameters to the actual mailer. In the example below we set the correct Return-Path header for sendmail. Normally sendmail will add the X-Authentication-Warning header when using the -f parameter, because the webserver user is probably not a member of the trusted users. To suppress this warning, you should add the web server user to the trusted users in your sendmail config file.

Example 3. Sending mail with extra headers and setting an additional command line parameter. mail("[email protected]", "the subject", $message, "From: webmaster@$SERVER_NAME", "-fwebmaster@$SERVERNAME");

You can also use fairly simple string building techniques to build complex email messages.

Example 4. Sending complex email. /* recipients */ $recipient .= "Mary <[email protected]>" . ", " ; //note the comma $recipient .= "Kelly <[email protected]>" . ", "; $recipient .= "[email protected]"; /* subject */ $subject = "Birthday Reminders for August"; /* message */ $message .= "The following email includes a formatted ASCII table\n"; $message .= "Day \t\tMonth \t\tYear\n"; $message .= "3rd \t\tAug \t\t1970\n"; $message .= "17rd\t\tAug \t\t1973\n"; /* you can add a stock signature */ $message .= "--\r\n"; //Signature delimiter $message .= "Birthday reminder copylefted by public domain"; /* additional header pieces for errors, From cc's, bcc's, etc */ $headers .= "From: Birthday Reminder <[email protected]>\n"; $headers .= "X-Sender: <[email protected]>\n"; $headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP\n"; // mailer $headers .= "X-Priority: 1\n"; // Urgent message! $headers .= "Return-Path: <[email protected]>\n"; // Return path for errors /* If you want to send html mail, uncomment the following line */ // $headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n"; // Mime type $headers .= "cc:[email protected]\n"; // CC to $headers .= "bcc:[email protected], [email protected]\n"; // BCCs to /* and now mail it */ mail($recipient, $subject, $message, $headers);