Shell scripting: Call to undefined function: mail()

[TruckStuff]

I have installed php as a CLI on a mandrake 8.0 system. The system has qmail installed on it (listening on port 26). I have made the following modifications to the php.ini file: to reflect this:

sendmail_path = /var/qmail/bin/sendmail -t -i
smtp_port = 26

This has worked on other installations of PHP, however, when I execute the following script, I recieve this error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: mail() in ./test.php on line 3

Here is the script I am trying to execute:

#!/usr/local/bin/php -q
<?php
mail ("[e-mail]", "Testing PHP", "PHP is functional");
?>

I do not have apache or send mail installed on this box. Is it possible that PHP did not detect sendmail on installation and therefore disabled mail? Any help would be appreciated.

[dalecosp]

Dunno for sure...tried this?

 <? phpinfo(); ?> 

...might tell you what PHP thought about your server setup....

HTH,

[TruckStuff]

phpinfo says that the SMTP server is localhost residing on port 26, which is as it should be:

sendmail_from : [e-mail] <-- fine, couldn't care less
sendmail_path : /var/qmail/bin/sendmail -t -i <-- fine also
SMTP: localhost
smtp_port : 26

[jerdo]

If you don't have sendmail running on the local system it isn't going to work.

[TruckStuff]

Sorry, but that is incorrect. Qmail has a sendmail wrapper program built in that "mimcs" sendmail without the security holes.

I have succesfully executed php mail() scripts on a different box running a similar set up, but for some reason this install doesn't like the mail() function.

Is the mail() function automatically added with every build of PHP? Is it possible that it is part of a module or something that I missed during compilation? I am relatively new to PHP and never have enjoyed compiling source code for anything, so I am hoping someone knows something that I might have missed.

[jstarkey]

I'm running PHP shell scripts on a few boxes with Qmail and I've never had to do anything special in the compile.

It looks to me like it should be working for you. You can double check by running:

./configure <your options> | grep mail

and make sure there were no glitches. Although, phpinfo says your fine, it appears.

[jerdo]

What I was trying to say is you have to have a program to send mail on your system in the place you specified. Anyhow, according to the manual on php.net mail is part of the php core and should be there no matter what. You might want to try reinstalling php it's possible something got corrupted when it was downloaded or installed. If you don't like compiling you could always use the rpms since you are using Mandrake.

[TruckStuff]

I created a symlink for sendmail hoping to fool PHP into thinking that I had sendmail and that might make a difference. When I ran ./configure --with-mysql --disable-cgi | grep mail, I got the following output:

checking for sendmail... /usr/bin/sendmail

I have recompiled several times, to the point of forcing CLI mode with the --disable-cgi configure option, and mail() still does not want to work. As far as I can tell, every other function in the PHP library works, just not mail().

Can someone provide me with a good link to find some RPMs for php? I have searched Google and rpmfind.net and I cannot find any RPMs for Mandrake and PHP 4.3. Older versions of php abound, however.

[frymaster]

this is going to sound dumb but:

a) does mail(1) work? ie does mail -s "blah" [e-mail] < /etc/passwd work?

b) have you checked phpinfo to see what path it has for "sendmail"?

c) did you actually link to the sendmail wrapper in /var/qmail ?

d) have you check /var/log/mail or /var/log/qmail/current for anything weird?

[jstarkey]

Originally posted by frymaster

a) does mail(1) work? ie does mail -s "blah" [e-mail] < /etc/passwd work?

Soooo, what does frymaster do in his spare time? First instinct is to send etc passwd? 😃

It's probably best not to use /etc/passwd, just in case something goes wacky. If you don't have a file you can use just do:

echo 'php mail test' > ./newfilename

then replace /etc/passwd above with ./newfilename.

[TruckStuff]

Yeah, I thought that was funny too. At least he didn't put his email address in there. 😃

Anywho, I did fix a couple of little things and I can successfully send mail from teh shell via "mail". However, PHP will still not allow me to use the mail() function. It still gives me undefined function errors. I have recompiled several times (since recompiling is no longer a problem for me. 😉) and still nothing. Any other suggestions?

[jstarkey]

Originally posted by TruckStuff
Yeah, I thought that was funny too. At least he didn't put his email address in there. 😃

Hehe, when I read it, my mind instinctively thought that was the address, I guess, I had to reread it.

Anywho, I did fix a couple of little things and I can successfully send mail from teh shell via "mail". However, PHP will still not allow me to use the mail() function. It still gives me undefined function errors. I have recompiled several times (since recompiling is no longer a problem for me. 😉) and still nothing. Any other suggestions?

This isn't the perm fix, but if you need a temp solution, I'd probably write to a file and then have a cron like:

0 echo yourfile | mail -s "whatever"

That would at least get you up and running, until you figure out the issue.

[jerdo]

Ok since php still thinks the mail server is in /usr/bin/sendmail that sounds like maybe you haven't restarted a service since you updated the php.ini file to point to the qmail program. Make sure you are updating the correct ini file, you can get which one is being used by doing a phpinfo() file, then restart your web server to make the changes take effect.

[TruckStuff]

That may be what I resort to, unfortunately, jstarkey.

Jerdo-
The mail server still is /usr/bin/sendmail, its just that points to a qmail wrapper. phpinfo() is looking at the proper php.ini file.

I don't think that the problem is with the qmail install anyway. If it were not finding the mail server wouldn't it give a different error than "Call to undefined function: mail"? The problem is that PHP is not finding the mail() function. So what would cause the mail() function to not be found?

And for the record, I am not running a web server of any sort. I am running this is a CLI to do shell scripting which, ultimately, will be an email parser.