No bounce for the mail() function

[Netmaking]

Hi,

I was hoping some PHP guru would be able to help me out with a problem that I was unable to get the answer to in the sitepointforums (which is vert rare).

The problem is that I do not receive the bounce Email messages for invalid Email addresses when using the mail() function. The code I'm using is the following:

<?php

$headers = "From: [email][e-mail][/email]\n" . 
		   "'Reply-to: [email][e-mail][/email]\n\n";

mail('[e-mail], [email][e-mail][/email]', 'subject', 'body', $headers);

?>

As you can see, the '[e-mail]' does not exist, but still, I receive no notification of this, regardless of the fact that my Email adress is set both as the from and reply-to address.

Someone suggested adding a fifth parameter looking something like "-f [e-mail]", but that didn't do any good.

Could my web host have some strange set up that keeps my bounces from reaching me?

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice !

[Jayson]

The bounce would go to the return-path address, not reply-to. That's what the -f switch does, but in most cases that is disabled when you are using a shared host. You'd have to ask your ISP to enable it for you, or you won't be able to change it.

[Netmaking]

Do you know, exactly, how this is enabled? I asked my web host which knew nothing about this, so I'm guessing I need to tell them exactly how to enable it in order for them to do it.

Thanks again !

[erick_w]

Add Return-Path to your email header...

something like this:
<?

$to="[e-mail]"; // put recipient email here
$reply_email="[e-mail]"; // put reply email here
$cc_email="[e-mail]"; // put cc email here
$return_email="[e-mail]"; // put return-path email here

$subject="Email Subject";
$body="Message........";
$email_header="From: $sender <$email>\nReply-To:$reply_email\nCc: $cc_email\nReturn-Path: $return_email\nContent-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii\nX-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();

mail($to,$subject,$body,$email_header);
?>

Hope it helps! 🙂

[Jayson]

Originally posted by erick_w
Add Return-Path to your email header...

If the -f switch won't work, that most likely wouldn't work either. But its worth a shot.

Just ask your host to let you use the -f option or to let you set return-path in the php mail() function. If they don't know what you're talking about, bash them on the head. 😃

It could also have something to do with safe_mode, but I'm not sure.

[Netmaking]

I have tried setting both return-path and my bounce address using the -f flag, so that's not it.

In the meanwhile, I've browsed the notes appending the mail() function at the php.net site, and found something that might be what I'm looking for.

As noted above sendmail_from is only used on MS Windows, to change the default sender on unix you must add -f to sendmail_path. For example in a <VirtualHost> directive:
php_admin_value sendmail_path "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -f [e-mail]"

would set the default return-path for mail from that virtual host.

I've sent the above to my web host, hoping that it makes more sense on his end than it does on mine.

Also, I'm curious as to whether or not all you other PHP users receive your bounce messages using the mail function. 😕

[Jayson]

Originally posted by Netmaking
Also, I'm curious as to whether or not all you other PHP users receive your bounce messages using the mail function. 😕

No, I don't. I just leave the return-path set to whatever address its set on. With thousands of subscribers to the newsletter, I don't want a bunch of trash coming back at me. :eek:

It'd be nice to know who's bouncing so you can whack them from the database, but I don't worry about it. It probably wouldn't be too hard to set up a script to receive bounces and figure out who to delete automatically, but I haven't gotten into that yet.

[Netmaking]

It'd be nice to know who's bouncing so you can whack them from the database[...]

That's exactly what I'm trying to do, so I really need those bounces!