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PHP mail() Function

PHP Mail Reference Complete PHP Mail Reference

Definition and Usage

The mail() function allows you to send emails directly from a script.

This function returns TRUE if the email was successfully accepted for delivery, otherwise it returns FALSE.

Syntax

mail(to,subject,message,headers,parameters)

Parameter Description
to Required. Specifies the receiver / receivers of the email
subject Required. Specifies the subject of the email. Note: This parameter cannot contain any newline characters
message Required. Defines the message to be sent. Each line should be separated with a LF (\n). Lines should not exceed 70 characters.

Windows note: If a full stop is found on the beginning of a line in the message, it might be removed. To solve this problem, replace the full stop with a double dot:
<?php
$txt = str_replace("\n.", "\n..", $txt);
?>
headers Optional. Specifies additional headers, like From, Cc, and Bcc. The additional headers should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n).

Note: When sending an email, it must contain a From header. This can be set with this parameter or in the php.ini file.
parameters Optional. Specifies an additional parameter to the sendmail program (the one defined in the sendmail_path configuration setting). (i.e. this can be used to set the envelope sender address when using sendmail with the -f sendmail option)

Tips and Notes

Note: Keep in mind that just because the email was accepted for delivery, it does NOT mean the email is actually sent and received.

Example 1

Send a simple email:

<?php
$txt = "First line of text\nSecond line of text";

// Use wordwrap() if lines are longer than 70 characters
$txt = wordwrap($txt,70);

// Send email
mail("somebody@example.com","My subject",$txt);
?>

Example 2

Send an email with extra headers:

<?php
$to = "somebody@example.com";
$subject = "My subject";
$txt = "Hello world!";
$headers = "From: webmaster@example.com" . "\r\n" .
"CC: somebodyelse@example.com";

mail($to,$subject,$txt,$headers);
?>

Example 3

Send an HTML email:

<?php
$to = "somebody@example.com, somebodyelse@example.com";
$subject = "HTML email";

$message = "
<html>
<head>
<title>HTML email</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>This email contains HTML Tags!</p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>John</td>
<td>Doe</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
";

// Always set content-type when sending HTML email
$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type:text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" . "\r\n";

// More headers
$headers .= 'From: <webmaster@example.com>' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Cc: myboss@example.com' . "\r\n";

mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
?>

PHP Mail Reference Complete PHP Mail Reference
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