Mail function success

[mistercoffee]

Hello,

I've built a simple form that submits email using the mail function. It works fine. On my hosted site, the server is pre-configured with a smtp mail tool. However, on my local dev environment (OS X w/ MAMP), I don't actually have a mail tool installed -- I would have thought that the mail function would return a "fail" in that case, but it still returns "success." Can I check to see if there is actually a functioning mail client, and return an error if there isn't?

Code is below:

thanks!
mc66

$subject = $REQUEST["subject"];
$fName = $REQUEST["fName"];
$email = $REQUEST["email"];
$formBody = $REQUEST["formBody"];

$message = "from: " . $fName . ", " . $email . "\n\n" . $formBody;

$mailSuccess = mail("[e-mail]",$subject,$message);

if ($mailSuccess)
$message = "Thanks for your message.<br />I'll be in touch soon.";
else
$message = "There was an error.<br />Please email [e-mail]";
echo $message;

[dagon]

mistercoffee;10942607 wrote:

Can I check to see if there is actually a functioning mail client, and return an error if there isn't?

you could try a socket connection to the smtp server listed in the php.ini

[mistercoffee]

dagon;10942715 wrote:

you could try a socket connection to the smtp server listed in the php.ini

My php.ini file has this:

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
;sendmail_from = [e-mail]

; For Unix only.  You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
;sendmail_path =

I can ignore Win32 because I'm on OSX (right?). How would I execute your suggestion?

thanks again!
MC66

[bradgrafelman]

I'm not familiar enough with OSX to say, but if mail() returns true then it must have connected to some sort of MTA on your computer on port 25. Otherwise, if you tried it locally and didn't have any sort of SMTP daemon running, you'd get something like:

Warning: mail(): Failed to connect to mailserver at "localhost" port 25, verify your "SMTP" and "smtp_port" setting in php.ini or use ini_set()

and mail() will return false.

You can test dagon's suggestion by opening the Terminal application and typing "telnet localhost 25" (without the quotes) and see if any sort of SMTP service responds.

[mistercoffee]

bradgrafelman;10942753 wrote:

I'm not familiar enough with OSX to say, but if mail() returns true then it must have connected to some sort of MTA on your computer on port 25. Otherwise, if you tried it locally and didn't have any sort of SMTP daemon running, you'd get something like:

and mail() will return false.

You can test dagon's suggestion by opening the Terminal application and typing "telnet localhost 25" (without the quotes) and see if any sort of SMTP service responds.

Thanks for the guidance. I did as you suggested and got the following:

Trying ::1...
telnet: connect to address ::1: Connection refused
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host

However, while I was in Terminal I saw a bunch of messages in the Terminal messaging system. They were all like so:

This is the Postfix program at host My-Computer.local.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to <postmaster>

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

                    The Postfix program

<[e-mail]>: host any-smtp.myhost.com
    said: 530 authentication required (in reply to MAIL FROM
    command)

So it does appear that I have Postfix installed (must be pre-installed), and that it is failing to deliver because the smtp server requires authentication. I guess my question, though, is still -- can my php recognize this and return a "fail" instead of a "success?"

thanks again
MC66