mail() reporting success but no mail arriving?

[sneakyimp]

ok...php 4.3.2.

i have this script:

<?
$from = "[e-mail]";
$to = "[e-mail]";
$headers = "From: $from" .
        "\r\nReply-To: $from";
$subject="TEST THE MAIL() FUNCTION";
$mesg = "This is a test message";

$success = mail($to, $subject, $mesg, $headers);

if ($success) {
  echo "SUCCESS!<BR>";
} else {
  echo "THERE WAS AN ERROR.<BR>";
}
?>

it works perfectly on my linux box. on my client's machine, it reports success over and over again but no mail ever arrives.

what's up with that? i realize mail can get lost and stuff but it doesn't seem to work at all and client is breathing down my neck about it.

is there some other way to send mail that will let you know more about what is going on? maybe let you know it's going to take awhile or something?

[nemonoman]

no. mail() only lets you know that the mail script executed successfully.

[sneakyimp]

thanks for clarifying that ... a bit anyway.

what does 'mail script executing successfully' entail? i know that doesn't guarantee a mail message will be sent, but does it mean that the mail server has agreed to take on the message and send it or what? just how far does it have to get to succeed?

what's the monkey chain of processes here and what does a mail() result of 'true' actually mean?

[nemonoman]

does it mean that the mail server has agreed to take on the message and send it

That's about the size of it.

[sneakyimp]

so if i write a script like this:

<?
$from = "[e-mail]";
$to = "[e-mail]";
$headers = "From: $from" .
        "\r\nReply-To: $from";
$subject="TEST THE MAIL() FUNCTION";
$mesg = "This is a test message";

$success = mail($to, $subject, $mesg, $headers);

if ($success) {
  echo "SUCCESS!<BR>";
} else {
  echo "THERE WAS AN ERROR.<BR>";
}
?>

and i get SUCCESS! as my message but no email ever arrives, does that mean i can scream at my hosting provider that something is wrong with their mail server?

[bpat1434]

I don't think you should scream at your hosting company. I'd look at your phpInfo file first

<? echo(phpinfo()); ?>

And go to:

dnsreport.com
and look to see how your mail servers are responding.

You might also want to look into using sendmail() as an alternative.

~Brett