How to send email using SSMTP through Codeigniter on Ubuntu

I am new to SSMTP and Ubuntu, but I have successfully sent emails using t开发者_如何学JAVAhe following command:

ssmtp -t < temp_email_file

Using PHP in Codeigniter, I'm trying to have my controller run the same command. I know this is not the most secure way to do things, but I'm just trying to generate an email to myself when users of our intranet run a script.

I've tried using the following and tried to echo the results, but I receive nothing back:

shell_exec()
exec()
system()

I'm out of debugging ideas. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This might be of help. I’m currently using it on Ubuntu Intrepid.

http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/84689/