{"id":59,"date":"2023-10-06T08:39:39","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T08:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.hostitsmart.com\/manage\/knowledgebase\/?p=59"},"modified":"2023-10-06T13:41:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T13:41:29","slug":"How-to-pipe-an-email-to-a-PHP","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.hostitsmart.com\/manage\/knowledgebase\/59\/How-to-pipe-an-email-to-a-PHP.html","title":{"rendered":"How to pipe an email to a PHP"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In some cases you might need to redirect a given mailbox to a PHP script to handle the incoming messages. This can be easily done with <\/span>cPanel -> Forwarders<\/strong> <\/span>tool.<\/span><\/p>\n

To set up pipe forwarding, you can follow the steps below:<\/span><\/p>\n

– Log in to your cPanel;<\/span><\/p>\n

– Click on the <\/span>Forwarders<\/strong> <\/span>icon, under the Mail section;<\/span><\/p>\n

– Click on the <\/span>Add Forwarder<\/strong> <\/span>button;<\/span><\/p>\n

– Fill in <\/span>Address to Forward<\/strong> <\/span>and put the mail address you would like to pipe the messages from.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Click on the <\/span>Advanced options<\/strong> <\/span>link and select <\/span>Pipe to a Program<\/strong>. Then fill in the full path to the script which will handle the messages. Bear in mind that the path is relative to your home directory, so if you create a script\/file called <\/span>pipescript.php<\/strong> <\/span>placed inside your home\/ folder you should fill in only <\/span>pipescript.php<\/strong> <\/span>inside the <\/span>Pipe to a Program<\/strong> <\/span>field. If the script is situated inside the <\/span>public_html\/<\/em> <\/span>folder you should fill in <\/span>public_html\/pipescript.php<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There are several important things you should check regarding the PHP script which is handling the email messages:<\/span><\/p>\n

– Ensure the very first line of the script is a hashbang (also called shebang). This is a special line which identifies the file as a PHP script. In most cases it should look like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

#!\/usr\/bin\/php -q<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

– Make sure that there are no whitespaces or blank lines before the above line as this will be sent to the mail server, which will result in a bounced message. The <\/span>\u2013q<\/strong> <\/span>option instructs PHP not to print its version either, since this will also result in a bounced message.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Make sure that the script permissions are set correctly. In most cases, you would simply need tochange the permissions<\/span><\/a>, either via your cPanel -> File Manager or through an FTP client and set them to <\/span>755<\/strong>. This will make the script executable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below you can find a sample PHP script which handles piped messages. The script will read the input from the STDIN and then save the full message into a file called <\/span>pipemail.txt<\/strong> <\/span>(make sure you provide the full path to the pipemail.txt file).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
1<\/div>\n
2<\/div>\n
3<\/div>\n
4<\/div>\n
5<\/div>\n
6<\/div>\n
7<\/div>\n
8<\/div>\n
9<\/div>\n
10<\/div>\n
11<\/div>\n
12<\/div>\n
13<\/div>\n
14<\/div>\n
15<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
\n
#!\/usr\/bin\/php -q<\/span><\/div>\n
<?<\/span><\/div>\n
\/* Read the message from STDIN *\/<\/span><\/div>\n
$fd<\/span>=<\/span>fopen<\/span>(<\/span>“php:\/\/stdin”<\/span>,<\/span>“r”<\/span>)<\/span>;<\/span><\/div>\n
$email<\/span>=<\/span>“”<\/span>;<\/span>\/\/ This will be the variable holding the data.<\/span><\/div>\n
while<\/span>(<\/span>!<\/span>feof<\/span>(<\/span>$fd<\/span>)<\/span>)<\/span>{<\/span><\/div>\n
$email<\/span>.<\/span>=<\/span>fread<\/span>(<\/span>$fd<\/span>,<\/span>1024<\/span>)<\/span>;<\/span><\/div>\n
}<\/span><\/div>\n
fclose<\/span>(<\/span>$fd<\/span>)<\/span>;<\/span><\/div>\n
\/* Saves the data into a file *\/<\/span><\/div>\n
$fdw<\/span>=<\/span>fopen<\/span>(<\/span>“\/home\/user\/pipemail.txt”<\/span>,<\/span>“w+”<\/span>)<\/span>;<\/span><\/div>\n
fwrite<\/span>(<\/span>$fdw<\/span>,<\/span>$email<\/span>)<\/span>;<\/span><\/div>\n
fclose<\/span>(<\/span>$fdw<\/span>)<\/span>;<\/span><\/div>\n
\/* Script End *\/<\/span><\/div>\n
?><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

where the user from the <\/span><\/span><\/span>\/home\/user\/pipemail.txt<\/em> <\/span>line is your cPanel username.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In some cases you might need to redirect a given mailbox to a PHP script to handle the incoming messages. This can be easily done with cPanel -> Forwarders tool. To set up pipe forwarding, you can follow the steps below: – Log in to your cPanel; – Click on the Forwarders icon, under the Mail section; – Click […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-mail"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to pipe an email to a PHP<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This tutorial will help you to pipe an email to a PHP script. 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