mail

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

mail — Enviar correo

Descripción

mail(
    string $to,
    string $subject,
    string $message,
    string $additional_headers = ?,
    string $additional_parameters = ?
): bool

Envía un correo electrónico.

Parámetros

to

Destinatario/s del correo.

El formato de este string debe cumplir con la » RFC 2822. Algunos ejemplos son:

usuario@example.com
usuario@example.com, otrousuario@example.com
Usuario
Usuario , Otro usuario

subject

Título del correo electrónico a enviar.

Precaución

El título debe cumplir con la » RFC 2047.

message

Mensaje a enviar.

Cada línea debería separarse con un CRLF (\r\n). Las líneas no deberían ocupar más de 70 caracteres.

Precaución

(Sólo en Windows) Cuando PHP se comunica directamente con un servidor SMTP, si encuentra un punto al principio de la línea, éste se elimina. Para evitar esto es necesario reemplazar estas apariciones con un doble punto.

<?php
$texto = str_replace("\n.", "\n..", $texto);
?>

additional_headers (opcional)

String a insertar al final de la cabecera del correo.

Se usa normalmente para añadir cabeceras extra (From, Cc y Bcc). Las cabeceras múltiples adicionales deberían separarse con un CRLF(\r\n). Si se usan datos externos para componer esta cabecera, los datos deberían ser saneados para que no se inyecten cabeceras no deseadas.

Nota:
additional_headers no posee protección de inyección de cabeceras de correo. Por tanto, los usuarios deben asegurarse de que las cabeceras especificadas son seguras y contienen solamente cabeceras. Es decir, nunca iniciar el cuerpo del correo con varias nuevas líneas.

Nota:
Cuando se envía un correo, este debe contener una cabecera From. Puede establecerse con el parámetro additional_headers, o puede definirse un valor predeterminaro en php.ini.

Si no se realiza esta acción se obtendrá un mensaje de error similar a Warning: mail(): "sendmail_from" not set in php.ini or custom "From:" header missing (Advertencia: mail(): "sendmail_from" no establecido en php.ini o falta la cabecera personalizada "From:"). La cabecera From también establece Return-Path bajo Windows.

Nota:
Si no se reciben los mensajes enviados, intente usar solamente LF (\n). Algunos agentes de transferencia de correo de Unix (como » qmail) reemplzan LF por CRLF automáticamente (lo que conlleva doblar CR si se usa CRLF). Esto debería ser el último recurso, pues no cumple con la » RFC 2822.

additional_parameters (opcional)

El parámetro additional_parameters puede usarse para indicar opciones adicionales como opciones de línea de comandos al programa que está configurado para usarse cuando se envía correo, definido por la opción de configuración sendmail_path. Por ejemplo, puede usarse para establecer la dirección de correo del remitente usando sendmail con su opción -f.

Este parámetro es escapado internamente por escapeshellcmd() para prevenir la ejecución del comando. Aunque escapeshellcmd() evita la ejecución del comando, permite añadir parámetros adicionales. Por razones de seguridad, se recomienda que el usuario sanee este parámetro para evitar que se añadan parámetros indeseados al comando.

Ya que escapeshellcmd() se aplica automáticamente, algunos caracteres que están permitidos como direcciones de correo electrónico por algún RFC no se pueden usar. mail() no puede permitir tales caracteres, por lo que en programas donde el uso de tales caracters sea necesario, se recomienda una vía alternativa de enviar correos (como usar un marco de trabajo o una biblioteca).

El usuario usado por el servidor web debería ser añadido como usuario de confianza en la configuración de sendmail para evitar que se añada la cabecera 'X-Warning' al mensaje cuando se añada la dirección de remitente (-f) usando este método. Para los usuarios de sendmail, este fichero es /etc/mail/trusted-users.

Valores devueltos

Devuelve true si el correo ha sido aceptado para su envío, de lo contrario false.

Es importante tener en cuenta que si el correo es aceptado para su envío, NO quiere decir que el correo haya alcanzado el destino indicado.

Historial de cambios

Versión	Descripción
7.2.0	El parámetro `additional_headers` ahora también acepta array.

Ejemplos

Ejemplo #1 Enviar un correo.

Usando mail() para enviar un correo simple:

<?php
// El mensaje
$mensaje = "Línea 1\r\nLínea 2\r\nLínea 3";

// Si cualquier línea es más larga de 70 caracteres, se debería usar wordwrap()
$mensaje = wordwrap($mensaje, 70, "\r\n");

// Enviarlo
mail('caffeinated@example.com', 'Mi título', $mensaje);
?>

Ejemplo #2 Enviar un correo con cabeceras extra.

Adición de cabeceras básicas, diciendo al MUA las direcciones From y Reply-To:

<?php
$para      = 'nobody@example.com';
$titulo    = 'El título';
$mensaje   = 'Hola';
$cabeceras = 'From: webmaster@example.com' . "\r\n" .
    'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com' . "\r\n" .
    'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

mail($para, $titulo, $mensaje, $cabeceras);
?>

Ejemplo #3 Enviar un correo con parámetros de línea de comando adicionales.

Se puede usar el parámetro additional_parameters para proporcionar parámetros adicicionales al programa configurado para usar en el envío de correo utilizando sendmail_path.

<?php
mail('nadie@example.com', 'El título', 'El mensaje', null,
'-fwebmaster@example.com');
?>

Ejemplo #4 Envío de un correo HTML

Es posible también enviar correos HTML con mail().

<?php
// Varios destinatarios
$para  = 'aidan@example.com' . ', '; // atención a la coma
$para .= 'wez@example.com';

// título
$título = 'Recordatorio de cumpleaños para Agosto';

// mensaje
$mensaje = '
<html>
<head>
  <title>Recordatorio de cumpleaños para Agosto</title>
</head>
<body>
  <p>¡Estos son los cumpleaños para Agosto!</p>
  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>Quien</th><th>Día</th><th>Mes</th><th>Año</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Joe</td><td>3</td><td>Agosto</td><td>1970</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Sally</td><td>17</td><td>Agosto</td><td>1973</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</body>
</html>
';

// Para enviar un correo HTML, debe establecerse la cabecera Content-type
$cabeceras  = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$cabeceras .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";

// Cabeceras adicionales
$cabeceras .= 'To: Mary <mary@example.com>, Kelly <kelly@example.com>' . "\r\n";
$cabeceras .= 'From: Recordatorio <cumples@example.com>' . "\r\n";
$cabeceras .= 'Cc: birthdayarchive@example.com' . "\r\n";
$cabeceras .= 'Bcc: birthdaycheck@example.com' . "\r\n";

// Enviarlo
mail($para, $título, $mensaje, $cabeceras);
?>

Nota:
Si la intención es enviar HTML u otro tipo de correo complejo, es recomendable usar el paquete PEAR » PEAR::Mail_Mime.

Notas

Nota:
La implementación en Windows de mail() difiere bastante de la implementación en Unix. Primero, no usa un binario local para componer mensajes ya que sólo opera en sockets directos, lo que significa que es necesario un MTA escuchando en un socket de red (que puede estar tanto en localhost como en una máquina remota).

Segundo, las cabeceras personalizadas como From:, Cc:, Bcc: y Date:, de entrada no son interpretadas por el MTA, aunque son analizadas por PHP.

Por esto, el parámetro to no debería ser una dirección de correo de la forma "Algo <alguien@example.com>". Es posible que el comando mail no analice esto correctamente mientrasz dialoga con el MTA.

Nota:
Es importante indicar que la función mail() no es conveniente para grandes volúmenes de correo en bucle. Esta función abre y cierra un socket SMTP para cada correo, algo que no es muy eficiente.

Para enviar una gran cantidad de correo, véanse los paquetes » PEAR::Mail y » PEAR::Mail_Queue.

Nota:
Las siguientes RFC pueden ser de utilidad: » RFC 1896, » RFC 2045, » RFC 2046, » RFC 2047, » RFC 2048, » RFC 2049, y » RFC 2822.

Ver también

imap_mail() - Send an email message
» PEAR::Mail
» PEAR::Mail_Mime

add a note

User Contributed Notes 20 notes

down

Anonymous ¶

8 years ago


Security advice: Although it is not documented, for the parameters $to and $subject the mail() function changes at least \r and \n to space. So these parameters are safe against injection of additional headers. But you might want to check $to for commas as these separate multiple addresses and you might not want to send to more than one recipient.

The crucial part is the $additional_headers parameter. This parameter can't be cleaned by the mail() function. So it is up to you to prevent unwanted \r or \n to be inserted into the values you put in there. Otherwise you just created a potential spam distributor.

down

php at simoneast dot net ¶

7 years ago


Often it's helpful to find the exact error message that is triggered by the mail() function. While the function doesn't provide an error directly, you can use error_get_last() when mail() returns false.

<?php
$success = mail('example@example.com', 'My Subject', $message);
if (!$success) {
    $errorMessage = error_get_last()['message'];
}
?>

(Tested successfully on Windows which uses SMTP by default, but sendmail on Linux/OSX may not provide the same level of detail.)

Thanks to https://stackoverflow.com/a/20203870/195835

down

priyanshkala3 at gmail dot com ¶

1 year ago


Sending mail using XAMPP server

I encountered numerous issues while attempting to send emails using the XAMPP server. However, I eventually found the correct method to accomplish it.

Configuring PHP's mail functionality to work with Gmail's SMTP server involves editing the `php.ini` and `sendmail.ini` configuration files. Below are the formal steps for setting up PHP to send emails through Gmail's SMTP server using XAMPP:

Configuring php.ini:

1. Open `php.ini` in an editor:
   Open the `php.ini` configuration file in your preferred text editor.

2. Locate the mail function:
   Use the search function (Ctrl + F) to find the section related to the mail function within the `php.ini` file.

3. Update mail function settings:
   Copy and paste the following configuration parameters into the mail function section. Comment out or disable all other settings related to mail.

   php.ini code to be edited:

   SMTP=smtp.gmail.com
   smtp_port=587
   sendmail_from = yourmail@gmail.com
   sendmail_path = write_sendmail.exe_path
   

4. Save the changes:
   Save the `php.ini` file after applying the modifications.

Configuring sendmail.ini (in XAMPP folder):

1. Open `sendmail.ini` in XAMPP folder:
   Locate and open the `sendmail.ini` configuration file within the XAMPP directory.

2. Adjust SMTP settings:
   Insert the following content into the `sendmail.ini` file, marking other configurations as comments:

   sendmail.ini code :

   smtp_server=smtp.gmail.com
   smtp_port=587
   error_logfile=error.log
   debug_logfile=debug.log
   auth_username=yourmail@gmail.com
auth_password=app_password_after_enabling_two_factor_authentication_for_your_mail_id
   force_sender=priyansh.kala.4@gmail.com
   

3. Save the changes:
   Save the `sendmail.ini` file after inserting the specified configurations.

These steps configure PHP to utilize Gmail's SMTP server for sending emails. Ensure that the modifications are saved and that the necessary XAMPP services are restarted for the changes to take effect.

Please note that using hardcoded passwords in configuration files poses a security risk. Storing passwords directly in plain text files should be avoided in production environments. Consider using environment variables or secure credential management systems for better security practices.

Code for sending mail-:

<?php
$subject = "Mail for checking";
$msg = "Hey! Let us play with PHP.";
$receiver = "reciever@gmail.com";
mail($receiver, $subject, $msg);
?>

down

Anonymous ¶

5 years ago


If you notice wrong displayed characters in the email it's because you need to properly set the Content-Type and the Charset in the headers of the email:

<?php
$headers = 'Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8' . "\r\n";
?>

Mostly, UTF-8 is your best choice.

You can set custom headers with the fourth parameter of the mail() function.

To make the whole thing waterproof, add the following header too:

<?php
$headers .= 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64' . "\r\n";
?>

Now you can use the combination of UTF-8 and Base64 to properly encode the subject line and the recipient name like this:

<?php
$subject = '=?UTF-8?B?' . base64_encode('Test email with German Umlauts öäüß') . '?=';
$recipient = '=?UTF-8?B?' . base64_encode('Margret Müller') . '?= <recipient@domain.com>';
?>

And don't forget to Base64 encode the email message too:

<?php
$message = base64_encode('This email contains German Umlauts öäüß.');
?>

All references are taken from:
https://dev.to/lutvit/how-to-make-the-php-mail-function-awesome-3cii

down

pangz dot lab at gmail dot com ¶

4 years ago


* Sending email with attachment

function sendMail(
    string $fileAttachment,
    string $mailMessage = MAIL_CONF["mailMessage"],
    string $subject     = MAIL_CONF["subject"],
    string $toAddress   = MAIL_CONF["toAddress"],
    string $fromMail    = MAIL_CONF["fromMail"]
): bool {
    
    $fileAttachment = trim($fileAttachment);
    $from           = $fromMail;
    $pathInfo       = pathinfo($fileAttachment);
    $attchmentName  = "attachment_".date("YmdHms").(
    (isset($pathInfo['extension']))? ".".$pathInfo['extension'] : ""
    );
    
    $attachment    = chunk_split(base64_encode(file_get_contents($fileAttachment)));
    $boundary      = "PHP-mixed-".md5(time());
    $boundWithPre  = "\n--".$boundary;
    
    $headers   = "From: $from";
    $headers  .= "\nReply-To: $from";
    $headers  .= "\nContent-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=\"".$boundary."\"";
    
    $message   = $boundWithPre;
    $message  .= "\n Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n";
    $message  .= "\n $mailMessage";
    
    $message .= $boundWithPre;
    $message .= "\nContent-Type: application/octet-stream; name=\"".$attchmentName."\"";
    $message .= "\nContent-Transfer-Encoding: base64\n";
    $message .= "\nContent-Disposition: attachment\n";
    $message .= $attachment;
    $message .= $boundWithPre."--";
    
    return mail($toAddress, $subject, $message, $headers);
}

* Sending email in html

function sendHtmlMail(
    string $mailMessage = MAIL_CONF["mailMessage"],
    string $subject     = MAIL_CONF["subject"],
    array $toAddress    = MAIL_CONF["toAddress"],
    string $fromMail    = MAIL_CONF["fromMail"]
): bool {
    
    $to        = implode(",", $toAddress);
    $headers[] = 'MIME-Version: 1.0';
    $headers[] = 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1';    
    $headers[] = 'To: '.$to;
    $headers[] = 'From: '.$fromMail;    

    return mail($to, $subject, $mailMessage, implode("\r\n", $headers));
}

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Mark Simon ¶

5 years ago


It is worth noting that you can set up a fake sendmail program using the sendmail_path directive in php.ini.

Despite the comment in that file, sendmail_path also works for Window. From https://www.php.net/manual/en/mail.configuration.php#ini.sendmail-path:

This directive works also under Windows. If set, smtp, smtp_port and sendmail_from are ignored and the specified command is executed.

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charles dot fisher at arconic dot com ¶

7 years ago


I migrated an application to a platform without a local transport agent (MTA). I did not want to configure an MTA, so I wrote this xxmail function to replace mail() with calls to a remote SMTP server. Hopefully it is of some use.

function xxmail($to, $subject, $body, $headers)
{
 $smtp = stream_socket_client('tcp://smtp.yourmail.com:25', $eno, $estr, 30);

 $B = 8192;
 $c = "\r\n";
 $s = 'myapp@someserver.com';

 fwrite($smtp, 'helo ' . $_ENV['HOSTNAME'] . $c);
  $junk = fgets($smtp, $B);

 // Envelope
 fwrite($smtp, 'mail from: ' . $s . $c);
  $junk = fgets($smtp, $B);
 fwrite($smtp, 'rcpt to: ' . $to . $c);
  $junk = fgets($smtp, $B);
 fwrite($smtp, 'data' . $c);
  $junk = fgets($smtp, $B);

 // Header 
 fwrite($smtp, 'To: ' . $to . $c); 
 if(strlen($subject)) fwrite($smtp, 'Subject: ' . $subject . $c); 
 if(strlen($headers)) fwrite($smtp, $headers); // Must be \r\n (delimited)
 fwrite($smtp, $headers . $c); 

 // Body
 if(strlen($body)) fwrite($smtp, $body . $c); 
 fwrite($smtp, $c . '.' . $c);
  $junk = fgets($smtp, $B);

 // Close
 fwrite($smtp, 'quit' . $c);
  $junk = fgets($smtp, $B);
 fclose($smtp);
}

down

imme_emosol ¶

1 year ago


Also see chunk_split (as "alternative" to wordwrap).

down

chris at ocproducts dot com ¶

7 years ago


The 'sendmail' executable which PHP uses on Linux/Mac (not Windows) expects "\n" as a line separator.

This executable is a standard, and emulated by other MTAs.

"\n" is confirmed required for qmail and postfix, probably also for sendmail and exim but I have not tested.

If you pass through using "\r\n" as a separator it may appear to work, but your email will be subtly corrupted and some middleware may break. It only works because some systems will clean up your mistake.

If you are implementing DKIM be very careful, as DKIM checks will fail (at least on popular validation tools) if you screw this up. DKIM must be calculated using "\r\n" but then you must switch it all to "\n" when using the PHP mail function.

On Windows, however, you should use "\r\n" because PHP is using SMTP in this situation, and hence the normal rules of the SMTP protocol (not the normal rules of Unix piping) apply.

down

Porjo ¶

14 years ago


Make sure you enclose \r\n in double quotes (not single quotes!) so that PHP can translate that into the correct linefeed code

down

eeeugeneee ¶

7 years ago


Send mail with minimal requirements from email services.

<?php
    $encoding = "utf-8";

    // Preferences for Subject field
    $subject_preferences = array(
        "input-charset" => $encoding,
        "output-charset" => $encoding,
        "line-length" => 76,
        "line-break-chars" => "\r\n"
    );

    // Mail header
    $header = "Content-type: text/html; charset=".$encoding." \r\n";
    $header .= "From: ".$from_name." <".$from_mail."> \r\n";
    $header .= "MIME-Version: 1.0 \r\n";
    $header .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit \r\n";
    $header .= "Date: ".date("r (T)")." \r\n";
    $header .= iconv_mime_encode("Subject", $mail_subject, $subject_preferences);

    // Send mail
    mail($mail_to, $mail_subject, $mail_message, $header);
?>

down

atesin > gmail ¶

1 year ago


mail() internals:

doing some tests i can say... if sendmail_path is defined in php.ini or by ini.set(), by calling function like...

mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers, $params)

would be like if php open a shell internally, execute this command, send this text to stdin, and return true if return value == 0

------------
shell> $sendmail_path $params
To: $to
Subject: $subject
$headers

$message
(EOF)
------------

in windows instead using php smtp which is very limited, i prefer to force use sendmail-like behavior, by setting sendmail_path and then use msmtp for windows

down

pavel.lint at vk.com ¶

12 years ago


Here's a small handy function I use to send email in UTF-8.

 <?php
function mail_utf8($to, $from_user, $from_email, 
                                             $subject = '(No subject)', $message = '')
   { 
      $from_user = "=?UTF-8?B?".base64_encode($from_user)."?=";
      $subject = "=?UTF-8?B?".base64_encode($subject)."?=";

      $headers = "From: $from_user <$from_email>\r\n". 
               "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\r\n" . 
               "Content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8" . "\r\n"; 

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

down

ABOMB ¶

12 years ago


I was having delivery issues from this function to Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.  I used the notes here to figure that you need to be setting your Return-Path to a valid email to catch bounces.  There are two extra delivery gotchas on top of that:

1) The domain in the email used in the -f option in the php.ini sendmail parameter or in the mail() extra parameters field, needs to have a valid SPF record for the domain (in DNS as a "TXT" record type for sure and add an additional  "SPF" type record if possible).  Why? That's header field being used for spam checks.

2) You should also use a domain key or DKIM.  The trick here is that the domain key/DKIM is case sensitive!  I used Cpanel to create my domain key which automatically used all lowercase domain names in the key creation.  I found when  sending email and using a camel case "-f account@MyDomainHere.Com" option, my key was not accepted.  However it was accepted when I used "-f account@mydomainhere.com".

There are many other factors that can contribute to mail not getting to inboxes, including your own multiple failed testing attempts, so I suggest you consult each site's guidelines and don't ask me for help.  These are just the couple technical issues that helped my case.

I hope this saves someone some time and headaches...

down

Ben Cooke ¶

19 years ago


Note that there is a big difference between the behavior of this function on Windows systems vs. UNIX systems. On Windows it delivers directly to an SMTP server, while on a UNIX system it uses a local command to hand off to the system's own MTA.



The upshot of all this is that on a Windows system your  message and headers must use the standard line endings \r\n as prescribed by the email specs. On a UNIX system the MTA's "sendmail" interface assumes that recieved data will use UNIX line endings and will turn any \n to \r\n, so you must supply only \n to mail() on a UNIX system to avoid the MTA hypercorrecting to \r\r\n.



If you use plain old \n on a Windows system, some MTAs will get a little upset. qmail in particular will refuse outright to accept any message that has a lonely \n without an accompanying \r.

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-3

rexlorenzo at gmail dot com ¶

12 years ago


Be careful to not put extra spaces for the $headers variable.

For example, this didn't work on our servers:

$headers = "From: $from \r\n Bcc: $bcc \r\n";

But this did:

$headers = "From: $from\r\nBcc: $bcc\r\n";

Notice the removal of the spaces around the first \r\n.

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-2

Anonymous ¶

1 year ago


So far I used the following to make sure special charakters where correctly shown in the mail subject:

<?php $subject = '=?utf-8?B?' . base64_encode($subject) . '?='; ?>

But with very long subjects, the header line gets longer than 76 chars and some e-mail servers really don't like that... So this is my new solution:

<?php $subject = substr(mb_encode_mimeheader("Subject: " . $subject, 'utf-8', 'B', "\r\n", 0), 9); ?>

Please note: I added "Subject: " in front of $subject and stripped it of afterwards. This is to make sure, that the necessarry space is reserved, as PHP will add the "Subject: " itself...

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-3

andrew at my-syte dot com ¶

2 years ago


Regarding To: 

be careful not to duplicate To in the additional_headers, 

lest gmail already flags it thus:

host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [142.251.xx.xx]
SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
550-5.7.1 [xxx.xxx.xx.xx] This message is not RFC 5322 compliant, the issue is:
550-5.7.1 duplicate To headers. To reduce the amount of spam sent to Gmail,
550-5.7.1 this message has been blocked. Please review
550 5.7.1 RFC 5322 specifications for more information.

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-16

Max AT ¶

12 years ago


To define a mail sensitivity you have to put this line in the headers:

<?php
        $headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" ;
        $headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n";

        $headers .= "Sensitivity: Personal\n";

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

Possible Options:
Sensitivity: Normal, Personal, Private and Company-Confidential

These will be recognised and handled in Outlook, Thunderbird and others.

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-37

php dot net at schrecktech dot com ¶

19 years ago


When sending MIME email make sure you follow the documentation with the "70" characters per line...you may end up with missing characters...and that is really hard to track down...

add a note