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Accepted
Ben
Asked: 2012-03-19 13:20:51 +0800 CST

How to sendmail via command line piping

  • 772

I have a cron command that runs a file and I'm trying to setup the output so it emails to me. I use this with 3rd party scripts that I don't want to modify the direct files, so I need to pipe the output instead of modifying the PHP.

I'm migrating from a server that uses mail to a server that uses sendmail. I'm struggling to find out how to properly send a subject to sendmail via a command line.

/usr/local/bin/php -f /path/to/file.php 2>&1 | /usr/sbin/sendmail -s "My Test Email Subject" [email protected]
linux sendmail

4 Answers

  1. On my Debian systems (which have Exim rather than "real" sendmail, but still have a sendmail binary for compatibility), when I want to send mail from a script I do something equivalent to:

    cat <<EOF | sendmail -t
To: [email protected]
Subject: Testing
From: [email protected]

This is a test message
EOF

    Note that the blank line is important.

    • 14
  2. Best Answer

    /usr/sbin/sendmail

    That's wrong.

    You should have a mail command some where. It could be called mailx. Should be in the /bin/ directory. As standard practice, php scripts should never be calling anything in /sbin or /usr/sbin. The sbin programs are typically for root.

    Also, php has a built in mail function.

    • 3 
  3. echo -e "This is my body\nSecond line" 2>&1 | sed '1!b;s/^/To: [email protected]\nSubject: My Test Email Subject\n\n/' | sendmail -t

    echo = The body of the email.
    sed stuff = Applies the email headers, and important double-line between body and headers.
    sendmail -t = Pipes it directly through sendmail.

    • 1 
  4. php -f file.php 2>&1 | sed 's/^/To: [email protected]\nSubject: My Test Email Subject\n\n/' | sendmail -t
    • -1