hi everybody
i've got a php script that loops through approximately 4500 email addresses in a postgres database and sends a newsletter. i've run a bunch of tests, sending the newsletters to my own email address, and get varying results. sometimes i'll get back 750 emails, other times i'll get back 2500, etc. it never seems to get through all 4500 emails, though. the site is hosted on a free bsd (unix) box. no special components are used to send the email, just mail(). i thought that the mail server itself may be becoming swamped once a certain number of emails get dropped into the outbox, so i tried adding a 2 minute pause (using php's sleep function) once a certain number of email have been sent. i've tried changing the pause to kick in when the script hits 500, 1000, 2000 emails, but still never seem to get through all emails.
anybody have any ideas?
while ($iCount < $iNumRecipients){
$rs = pg_fetch_object($data, $iCount);
// begin sending emails //
if (strstr($sEmailRecipient, '@') != false){ // make sure there's an @ sign in the email address //
mail($sEmailRecipient, $sSubject, $sStyledEmailBody, $sStyledEmailHeaders);
}
// create pause if we're sending a large volume of email //
if ($iSecondaryCount == 1000){ // we've hit 1000 emails sent - do a pause so we don't overwhelm the mail server //
sleep(120); // delay for 2 minutes //
$iSecondaryCount = 0;
}
$iCount++;
$iSecondaryCount++;
}
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since you are getting some messages returned to sender, then at means they are being sent, nothing wrong with your script. there is probably a limit on the number of e-mails the mail server can send per hour. e-mail the webmaster and ask them if there is a limit, and if there is how much. you cant change the limit with php, sorry.
-Matt
As VGR puts it, it might be a problem with the time assigned in the php configuration for the maximum execution time.
You might want to tell the administrator to change the settings
max_execution_time = 300
to a value bigger than the default 30 seconds.
Also note that the sleep() functions just delays the execution time but does not reset the execution time. I mean if you sleep when the script has executed for 25 seconds and max limits is 30 seconds when you unsleep it will just execute for the remaining 5 seconds!
hey mattjp88
i'm not sure the "limit emails per hour" theory works here since i sometimes get back 750 emails, and other times get back 2500 emails. it's possible that i've tried running the script more than once in a hour, which may explain why i get 750 and then 2500 emails. i'll try running a few tests several hours apart tonight and see what kinds of volume i'm getting back. if this were it, though, do you think that doing something like sleep(3600) (i.e. sleep for 1 hour) would work or would the process die given such a long sleep?
tks
what you could do is set up a cron job on the server that runs once an hour. have a loop repeat the max number of times that can be sent per hour, and then have it write what e-mail it stopped at in a text file or database. then the next hour will start off where the previous hour left off. it will do that untill the entire list of e-mails are done.
-Matt
hi MarcosBL
i'm not comfortable sending an email out where the recipients can see the email address of all other recipients. giving away this info could lead to abuse/spam by a member who wanted to steal this list for themselves. this is a legitimate ezine service, so i’m not prepared to risk the privacy of the members who are subscribed. a "bcc" approach may work, but i'd have no good way to determine if the emails were getting through... i'm going to stick with what works.
sorry
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Answer for Membership
by: VGRPosted on 2003-10-07 at 13:42:24ID: 9509015
what is your set_time_limit() [max-exec-time] setting ?