{"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":"2024-09-20T07:34:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T07:34:19","slug":"how-to-pipe-an-email-to-a-php","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.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 cPanel -> Forwarders<\/strong> tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2013 Log in to your cPanel;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Click on the Forwarders<\/strong> icon, under the Mail section;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Click on the Add Forwarder<\/strong> button;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Fill in Address to Forward<\/strong> and put the mail address you would like to pipe the messages from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Click on the Advanced options<\/strong> link and select 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 pipescript.php<\/strong> placed inside your home\/ folder you should fill in only pipescript.php<\/strong> inside the Pipe to a Program<\/strong> field. If the script is situated inside the public_html\/<\/em> folder you should fill in public_html\/pipescript.php<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2013 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2013 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 \u2013q<\/strong> option instructs PHP not to print its version either, since this will also result in a bounced message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Make sure that the script permissions are set correctly. In most cases, you would simply need to change the permissions<\/a>, either via your cPanel -> File Manager or through an FTP client and set them to 755<\/strong>. This will make the script executable.<\/p>\n\n\n\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 pipemail.txt<\/strong> (make sure you provide the full path to the pipemail.txt file).<\/p>\n\n\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
?><\/span><\/span>\n

where the user from the\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\/home\/user\/pipemail.txt<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>line is your cPanel username.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>","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: \u2013 Log in to your cPanel; \u2013 Click on the Forwarders icon, under the Mail section; \u2013 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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