mail() will not work under Linux

kwestberg

I have a PHP script that I use to create and send email messages from an HTML form, it works fine under a Unix host, but when I run it under a Linux host all the code runs fine except for the mail() function, it returns back a false completion code and no email gets sent. I talked with the Linux hosting techs and they said everything was enabled and the sendmail_path and switches were set OK. ( /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i ).

Can anyone help me with why the mail() doesn't work under the Linux host?

<?
if (empty ($name)) {
echo " <center>Please input correct Name!</center>";
exit; }

$pattern = ".+@.+..+";
if (!eregi ($pattern, $email)) {
echo " <center>Please input correct Email address!</center>";
exit; }

$message = "You have received an inquiry from your WebSite. \n";
$message = $message.date('j M Y, H:ia')."\n";

while ($element = each ($_POST))
{
if ($element["key"] == "Subject") continue;
if ($element["key"] == "MailTo") continue;
if ($element["key"] == "MailFrom") continue;
if ($element["key"] == "ReDirect") continue;
if ($element["key"] == "Reply_Message") continue;
$message = $message."\n".$element["key"].": ====> ". $element["value"];
}

if (mail ($MailTo, $Subject, $message, "from: $email")) {
echo "<center> Your Registration was successfully sent. You will recieve a response back within 24 hours, Thank You for using our WebSite!</center>";
} else {
echo "<center> There was an email send problem....Your message was not sent. ";}

tsinka

Hi,

does it work if you just use mail ($MailTo, $Subject, $message) without the additional header ?

Thomas

bubblenut

Can you send mail from the command line?

[root@app /]# mail -s "subject  line" [email]to.add@domain.tld[/email] < text

kwestberg

Originally posted by tsinka
Hi,

does it work if you just use mail ($MailTo, $Subject, $message) without the additional header ?

Thomas

Thomas,
I removed the additional header and I got the same results, it still returned a false condition....
Thanks

kwestberg

bubblenut,
I ran the script like you said from the command line and it still failed....
Thanks

tsinka

Hi,

which error do you get if you execute the shell command.

Thomas

kwestberg

Thomas,
I am not to heavy in PHP, I don't know how to run the shell command.... the script resides at www.bridaldownpayment.com/html/form2mail.php
I've put some test code in to satisfy edits.

tsinka

Hi,

I think a misunderstanding ... What error did you get when you executed the mail command on the command line (after logging in via telnet or ssh) like mentioned by bubblenut in his last post ? Do you have shell access to the server at all ?

Thomas

kwestberg

Thomas,
I do not know how to use telnet, I guess I didn't do the command line entry right, I entered the script thru the run command on the windows start menu and thought that is what he wanted. Now I realize what you are talking about, but don't know how to do it.
All I know is that I get false response from the execution of the Mail() function and can't determine the exact error message.

tsinka

Hi,

try the following instead:

create a little test file that contains the following data:

Reply-To: replytoaddress
Subject: Test
From: mailfromaddress
To: mailtoaddress
Content-Type: text/plain

This is some text

replace the place holders replytoaddress, mailfromaddress and mailtoaddress with real life addresses.
Make sure that there is an empty line after Content-Type

Upload that file to a known location on the webserver.

Then write the following script:

<?PHP
passthru("/usr/sbin/sendmail -v -v -t -i < /path/to/mail.txt");
?>

Where mail.txt is the file you uploaded to the server.

Post the results

Thomas

tsinka

Hi,

if that doesn't do anything you might try:

<?PHP
passthru("/usr/sbin/sendmail -bp");
?>

This should return the mail queue.

Thomas

kwestberg

Thomas,
1. I built this mail.txt file:

Reply-To: k-westberg@comcast.net
Subject: Test
From: k-westberg@attbi.com
To: k-westberg@comcast.net
Content-Type: text/plain

This is some text

I built this mail.php script:

<?PHP
passthru("/usr/sbin/sendmail -v -v -t -i < mail.txt");
?>

I ran the mail.php, a blank screen came up and as of now no email received.
I built this mail.php script:

<?PHP
passthru("/usr/sbin/sendmail -bp");
?>

Blank screen came up again, as of now no email returned.

Reply-To: k-westberg@comcast.net

tsinka

Hi,

interesting ...

what happens if you change the passthru calls to:

passthru("/usr/sbin/sendmail -v -v -t -i < mail.txt 2>&1");
and
passthru("/usr/sbin/sendmail -bp 2>&1");

I guess you get a permission denied or something like that ... just a guess.

Another test would be to use /usr/lib/sendmail instead of /usr/sbin/sendmail.

Please create a php script just containing

<?PHP
phpinfo();
?>

if that modifications don't work.

and post the results (maybe as HTML source attached as text file to your post).

Thomas

kwestberg

Thomas,
Me again....
I tried all the combinations you mentioned above and got the same results, blank screen and no email.....This appears to be the same results I get when I run my script, a false return code.

I ran the phpinfo() and though I am not literate enough to understand what I am reading I noticed that under a line item called disable_functions that it had mail listed there. Could this be the problem?

If you have time maybe you could look at the phpinfo results www.bridaldownpayment.com/html/mail.php

I also noticed the operating system as Windows instead of Linux, I am not sure of what that means...

thanks

tsinka

Hi,

this is the problem. The OS is windows and the path to sendmail in your first post made me assume that the server is running UNIX or LINUX.

The sendmail_path isn't set. Give me some minutes ...

Thomas

tsinka

Hi,

looking at the phpinfo page relay-app.secureserver.net seems to be the mail server that is used to send mails.

It seems like the server doesn't allow relaying which is a good thing in general. But not in this case. It might be neccessary to reconfigure that mail server that it allows relaying from your web server.

I tried to send a mail using that mail server manually. It hardly allows anything.

You might need to contact your hoster.

Thomas

tsinka

One other point:

If your hoster doesn't want to change anything you might use one of the PHP Mail classes available in different PHP libraries.
With such a class you can use another mail server that can be configured to allow relaying from your web server.

Thomas

kwestberg

Thomas,
Thanks very much for your time and patience....I will try and work with the host and see if they can do that for me. If they can't then I will learn about Mail classes.

Thanks again
Ken