Email help. (suExec not available)

[Rodney_H_]

I have been having problems with a PHP mail() script so I emailed my host. This is their reply:

I found out that on your server we have php compiled without suExec. Our admin recommends that you find a script that is configured to send mail out via an email account that is not the user nobody.

I am specifying the following arguments in my mail script:

<?php
$mail = mail($to, $subject, $message, 'From: [e-mail]' . "\r\n");

if($mail === true)
{
   echo 'mail sent';
}
else 
{
   echo 'no way, no how!';
}
?>

Can someone explain to me what I am doing wrong, or how to modify this script to work if suExec is not compiled?? I am very confused about this. All that I came up with is that suExec is an Apache configuration. The funny/strange part is that the scripts used to work. Now they don't...

Thanks for your help!

-RH

[bpat1434]

Perhaps it would be wise to look into the PEAR::mail functions. Not sure, but I'm 90% positive you can't use an IMAP type of connection with the mail() function.

You could always try and use the "[e-mail]" flag as an additional parameter...

~Brett

[Rodney_H_]

bpat1434 wrote:

Perhaps it would be wise to look into the PEAR::mail functions. Not sure, but I'm 90% positive you can't use an IMAP type of connection with the mail() function.

You could always try and use the "[e-mail]" flag as an additional parameter...

~Brett

Brett, thanks for the reply. Can you elaborate on the second recommendation, namely the use of the "[e-mail]" flag? Which argument would I stipulate this with? As part of the headers?

Also, is this normal not to compile PHP with the suExec? As I have other domains on the same host, but a different server, and my mail scripts work fine. What gives??

Please advise. Thanks.

I will start reading up on PEAR now.

[bpat1434]

Hmm... not sure about the suExec issue. Different things for different hosts. I know some hosts still use really old versions of mySQL.... so I can't really say what the norm is. I'd hope that it's disabled to help stop spamming, although, I could be totally off-base.

If you read the mail() manual page, it tells you what the extra parameters are for, and where to put it. It even gives a nice example. But your best bet is probably PEAR (as there's more functionality), but the draw-back is that it has to be compiled on the system; and I've found it's not common to have PEAR compiled.

~Brett

[Rodney_H_]

Thanks, Brett. I appreciate the information. Yes, I just read the mail() section in the manual from top to bottom and saw how to use that parameter you suggested. Tried it, and its a no-go.

I don't see any reference to PEAR in my host's Cpanel, but I never looked for it before.

Are there any parameters that I can change via ini_set() to send mail?

I was reading about a CGI wrapper, but am not sure about this. Does anyone know if I can change anything in my cgi-bin to allow outgoing mail??

Thanks.

[bpat1434]

There are probably a few cgi scripts that can act like the mail() function, and you could use those. Would just be a matter of posting the proper variables to the script...

PEAR wouldn't show up in your cPanel. You'd have to either try and include it, or ask your host if they've enabled/compiled it.

I'm not sure, but I don't think there is an ini_set() value that will actually define who the emails are sent from. Well.. using a win32 box you could set "sendmail_from" equal to an email address, but that's just the same as "FROM: [e-mail]" I suspect.

~Brett

[Rodney_H_]

Thanks, Brett. I appreciate all the help.

[bpat1434]

No problem.

~Brett