asked on

php mail fails

See attached, a fairly simple php script to send an email. Nothing is sent.

I put echo's into the code to show what's going on. The result is in the image file.

Note that "ret" is the return value from the mail function, there is no value, so I assume it's failing.

You can try it at www.whasocal.org/send_message.php

What's wrong?
msg-send.php
msg-send-echos.jpg

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

requeue

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

lexlythius

First off, try

var_dump($ret);

Open in new window

instead of

echo $ret;

Open in new window

so you don't need to assume.

Even better:

var_dump($tostr);
var_dump($subj);
var_dump($msg);
var_dump($headers);
var_dump($ret);

Open in new window

lexlythius

It appears that @requeue hit the nail on the head.

If I don't put myself in Carbon Copy, the mail is delivered to the mailing subsytem (a final "1" is printed).

Still, that does not ensure the mail is actually delivered to recipient(s). See mail function.

Also, your mailing configuration can use SMTP or sendmail, depending on your hosting. I suggest you put up a script with the following single line:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Open in new window

And see what you have.

wwwdeveloper2

If you don't have access to the php.ini file on the server, you might be able to do ini_sets to specify your own smtp and other settings needed by the mail()

For example:

ini_set ( sendmail_from, "my_email@my_server.com" );
ini_set( SMTP, "smtphm.sympatico.ca" );
ini_set( smtp_port, 25 );

If your smtp server requires authentication to relay - the PHP mail() is not very flexible. You might be able to take advantage of the php pear add-on. Here is a really easy tutorial:

http://email.about.com/od/emailprogrammingtips/qt/PHP_Email_SMTP_Authentication.htm

I hope you get it working.

Aaron Tomosky

Phpmailer is your friend

Richard Korts

ASKER

Apparently, the Cc semicolons.

Richard Korts

ASKER

To all,

The server is php email configured; I am sending other emails from this site in several other places.

It seems that the semicolon in header causes failure (as per requeue). I am successfully using ; in the mail "to" string, I guess it's in the header that it causes the issue.

Thanks all!