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Asked: 2026-05-16T02:59:39+00:00

I’m running the example from chapter 1 in Head First’s PHP and MySQL. I

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I’m running the example from chapter 1 in Head First’s PHP and MySQL. I placed the files on Head Fist’s site on apache’s /var/www folder and the thing runs. Yet, why isn’t php’s mailto working?

edit: btw, I’m working on Ubuntu 10.04

I added two debugging lines to the script:

$testmail = mail($to, $subject, $msg);
echo 'WAS IT MAILED? <br />'.$testmail;

Why isn’t printing WAS IT MAILED? TRUE? Why isn’t it mailing?

Edit: Is the fact that I’m mailing to my gmail address relevant?

Here’s the script:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
  <title>Aliens Abducted Me - Report an Abduction</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h2>Aliens Abducted Me - Report an Abduction</h2>

<?php
  $name = $_POST['firstname'] . ' ' . $_POST['lastname'];
  $when_it_happened = $_POST['whenithappened'];
  $how_long = $_POST['howlong'];
  $how_many = $_POST['howmany'];
  $alien_description = $_POST['aliendescription'];
  $what_they_did = $_POST['whattheydid'];
  $fang_spotted = $_POST['fangspotted'];
  $email = $_POST['email'];
  $other = $_POST['other'];

  $to = 'antoniorueda18@gmail.com';
  $subject = 'Aliens Abducted Me - Abduction Report';
  $msg = "$name was abducted $when_it_happened and was gone for $how_long.\n" .
    "Number of aliens: $how_many\n" .
    "Alien description: $alien_description\n" .
    "What they did: $what_they_did\n" .
    "Fang spotted: $fang_spotted\n" .
    "Other comments: $other";

  $testmail = mail($to, $subject, $msg);
  echo 'WAS IT MAILED? <br />'.$testmail;

  echo 'Thanks for submitting the form.<br />';
  echo 'You were abducted ' . $when_it_happened;
  echo ' and were gone for ' . $how_long . '<br />';
  echo 'Number of aliens: ' . $how_many . '<br />';
  echo 'Describe them: ' . $alien_description . '<br />';
  echo 'The aliens did this: ' . $what_they_did . '<br />';
  echo 'Was Fang there? ' . $fang_spotted . '<br />';
  echo 'Other comments: ' . $other . '<br />';
  echo 'Your email address is ' . $email;
?>

</body>
</html>

And here’s the html form:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
  <title>Aliens Abducted Me - Report an Abduction</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" />
</head>
<body>
  <h2>Aliens Abducted Me - Report an Abduction</h2>

  <p>Share your story of alien abduction:</p>
  <form method="post" action="report.php">
    <label for="firstname">First name:</label>
    <input type="text" id="firstname" name="firstname" /><br />
    <label for="lastname">Last name:</label>
    <input type="text" id="lastname" name="lastname" /><br />
    <label for="email">What is your email address?</label>
    <input type="text" id="email" name="email" /><br />
    <label for="whenithappened">When did it happen?</label>
    <input type="text" id="whenithappened" name="whenithappened" /><br />
    <label for="howlong">How long were you gone?</label>
    <input type="text" id="howlong" name="howlong" /><br />
    <label for="howmany">How many did you see?</label>
    <input type="text" id="howmany" name="howmany" /><br />
    <label for="aliendescription">Describe them:</label>
    <input type="text" id="aliendescription" name="aliendescription" size="32" /><br />
    <label for="whattheydid">What did they do to you?</label>
    <input type="text" id="whattheydid" name="whattheydid" size="32" /><br />
    <label for="fangspotted">Have you seen my dog Fang?</label>
    Yes <input id="fangspotted" name="fangspotted" type="radio" value="yes" />
    No <input id="fangspotted" name="fangspotted" type="radio" value="no" /><br />
    <img src="fang.jpg" width="100" height="175"
      alt="My abducted dog Fang." /><br />
    <label for="other">Anything else you want to add?</label>
    <textarea id="other" name="other"></textarea><br />
    <input type="submit" value="Report Abduction" name="submit" />
  </form>
</body>
</html>
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    From the PHP Docs for mail():

    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.

    Also: the mail() message could have been accepted into the mail queue, yet bounced due to various reasons. Your best bet is to check your mail logs – which will vary depending on your operating system and sendmail program.

    When sending mail from a web server it’s very likely that the message is being categorized as spam – depending on the configuration of the receiving mail server, this may result in the message being sent to the spam folder or being automatically deleted.

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