Send Local Emails with PHPMailer

Email Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟PHPMailer - PHP Package for Sending Emails

∟Send Local Emails with PHPMailer

This section provides a tutorial example on how to send local emails with PHPMailer using mail() function and 'sendmail' program.

PHPMailer supports 3 options on how emails are delivered to the recipients:

$mail->isMail() - Call this method to deliver emails using the PHP built-in mail() function to the local host. This is the default option.
$mail->isSendmail() - Call this method to deliver emails using the "sendmail" program located in path specified by the $mail->$sendmail variable.
$mail->isSMTP() - Call this method to deliver emails using the "STMP" protocol to a remote server specified by the $mail->$host variable to the local host.

Here is a PHP script to test the first 2 options.

<?php
#  PHPMailer-Send-Email-Locally.php
#- Copyright (c) 2019-2023 HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

$srcDir = "/home/herong/local/php/vendor/phpmailer/phpmailer/src/";
require "$srcDir/PHPMailer.php";
require "$srcDir/SMTP.php";
require "$srcDir/Exception.php";

$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
$mail->SMTPDebug = 4; # highest debugging level

if ($argv[1]=="mail") {
  $mail->isMail();
} else if ($argv[1]=="sendmail") {
  $mail->isSendmail();
  $mail->$sendmail = "/usr/sbin/sendmail";
} else {
  # default option
}

try {
   $mail->setFrom('joe@herongyang.com', 'Joe Doe');
   $mail->addAddress('herong@herongyang.com', 'Herong Yang');
   $mail->Subject = 'PHPMailer Test - Local Delivery';
   $mail->Body = 'There is a test message from PHPMailer.';
   $mail->send();
} catch (Exception $e) {
   # PHPMailer exceptions
   echo $e->errorMessage();
} catch (\Exception $e) {
   # PHP exceptions
   echo $e->getMessage();
}
?>

Run the above PHP script with different options:

herong$ php PHPMailer-Send-Email-Locally.php mail
...	Sending with mail()
...	Sendmail path: /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
...	Envelope sender: joe@herongyang.com
...	To: Herong Yang <herong@herongyang.com>
...	Subject: PHPMailer Test - Local Delivery
...	Headers: Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2021
      From: Joe Doe <joe@herongyang.com>
      Message-ID: <...@mail.herongyang.com>
      X-Mailer: PHPMailer 6.4.1 (https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer)
      MIME-Version: 1.0
      Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
...	Additional params: -fjoe@herongyang.com
...	Result: true

herong$ php PHPMailer-Send-Email-Locally.php sendmail
...	Sending with sendmail
...	Sendmail path: /usr/sbin/sendmail
...	Sendmail command: /usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -fjoe@herongyang.com -t
...	Envelope sender: joe@herongyang.com
...	Headers: Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2021
      To: Herong Yang <herong@herongyang.com>
      From: Joe Doe <joe@herongyang.com>
      Subject: PHPMailer Test - Local Delivery
      Message-ID: <...@mail.herongyang.com>
      X-Mailer: PHPMailer 6.4.1 (https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer)
      MIME-Version: 1.0
      Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
...	Result: true

herong$ php PHPMailer-Send-Email-Locally.php default
...	Sending with mail()
...	Sendmail path: /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
...	Envelope sender: joe@herongyang.com
...	To: Herong Yang <herong@herongyang.com>
...	Subject: PHPMailer Test - Local Delivery
...	Headers: Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2021
      From: Joe Doe <joe@herongyang.com>
      Message-ID: <...@mail.herongyang.com>
      X-Mailer: PHPMailer 6.4.1 (https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer)
      MIME-Version: 1.0
      Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
...	Additional params: -fjoe@herongyang.com
...	Result: true

Output confirms that both isMail() and isSendmail() options are working correctly.

Note that PHPMailer only accepts fully qualified email addresses like joe@herongyang.com. It will reject short addresses like "joe" or "joe@localhost".