PHP mail() Function

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

bool mail ( string $to , string $subject , string $message [, string $additional_headers [, string $additional_parameters ]] )

Sends an email.

Examples

Example #1 Sending mail.

Using mail() to send a simple email:

Example #2 Sending mail with extra headers.

The addition of basic headers, telling the MUA the From and Reply-To addresses:

Example #3 Sending mail with an additional command line parameter.

The additional_parameters parameter can be used to pass an additional parameter to the program configured to use when sending mail using the sendmail_path.

Example #4 Sending HTML email

It is also possible to send HTML email with mail().

<?php
// Multiple recipients
$to = 'johny@example.com, sally@example.com'; // note the comma

// Subject
$subject = 'Birthday Reminders for August';

// Message
$message = '
<html>
<head>
  <title>Birthday Reminders for August</title>
</head>
<body>
  <p>Here are the birthdays upcoming in August!</p>
  <table>
    <tr>
      <th>Person</th><th>Day</th><th>Month</th><th>Year</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Johny</td><td>10th</td><td>August</td><td>1970</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Sally</td><td>17th</td><td>August</td><td>1973</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</body>
</html>
';

// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
$headers[] = 'MIME-Version: 1.0';
$headers[] = 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1';

// Additional headers
$headers[] = 'To: Mary <mary@example.com>, Kelly <kelly@example.com>';
$headers[] = 'From: Birthday Reminder <birthday@example.com>';
$headers[] = 'Cc: birthdayarchive@example.com';
$headers[] = 'Bcc: birthdaycheck@example.com';

// Mail it
mail($to, $subject, $message, implode("\r\n", $headers));
?>

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.
headers	Optional. Specifies additional headers, like From, Cc, and Bcc. The additional headers should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n)
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)

Returns TRUE if the mail was successfully accepted for delivery, FALSE otherwise. It is important to note that just because the mail was accepted for delivery, it does NOT mean the mail will actually reach the intended destination.