how to use php mail on fedora

I'm running fedora core 9 with php 5.2.6. I want to send a simple email from a form using the php mail command.

Do I need to configure my system to be an smtp server? If so do I have to load something like pear?

I've read that pear is installed by default. however when I go to /usr/lib/php/pear , the folder is empty.

When I go to install pear with yum install php-pear none of the mirrors are available.

Does anyone have any suggesions on what mail service to use? If it's installed by default and where I can figure out how to configure.

Thanks! Joe

This the code I'm using:

    <?php

require_once('../class.phpmailer.php');
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

$mail->IsSMTP();

try {
  $mail->SMTPAuth   = true;                  // enable SMTP authentication
  $mail->SMTPSecure = "tls";                 // sets the prefix to the servier
  $mail->Host       = "smtp.gmail.com";      // sets GMAIL as the SMTP server
  $mail->Port       = "587";                 // set the SMTP port for the GMAIL server
  $mail->Username   = "joestestemail@gmail.com";  // GMAIL username
  $mail->Password   = "joeiscool";            // GMAIL password

  //This is the "Mail From:" field
  $mail->SetFrom('joestestemail@gmail.com', 'First Last');
  //This is the "Mail To:" field
  $mail->AddAddress('joe12345@mailcatch.com', 'John Doe');
  $mail->Subject = 'PHPMailer Test Subject via mail(), advanced';
  $mail->Body     = "Hi! \n\n This is my first e-mail开发者_C百科 sent through PHPMailer.";

  $mail->Send();
  echo "Message Sent OK<p></p>\n";
} catch (phpmailerException $e) {
  echo $e->errorMessage(); //Pretty error messages from PHPMailer
} catch (Exception $e) {
  echo $e->getMessage(); //Boring error messages from anything else!
}

?>

I would strongly recommend using a library like PHPMailer to send emails.

You can use it with the server's own mail service or with any other server on the internet (your ISPs, Gmail, etc).

For a better idea, check this example from their website:

require_once('../class.phpmailer.php');
$mail = new PHPMailer(true); // the true param means it will throw exceptions on     errors, which we need to catch

$mail->IsSMTP(); // telling the class to use SMTP

try {
  $mail->Host       = "mail.yourdomain.com"; // SMTP server
  $mail->SMTPDebug  = 2;                     // enables SMTP debug information (for testing)
  $mail->SMTPAuth   = true;                  // enable SMTP authentication
  $mail->Host       = "mail.yourdomain.com"; // sets the SMTP server
  $mail->Port       = 26;                    // set the SMTP port for the GMAIL server
  $mail->Username   = "yourname@yourdomain"; // SMTP account username
  $mail->Password   = "yourpassword";        // SMTP account password
  $mail->AddReplyTo('name@yourdomain.com', 'First Last');
  $mail->AddAddress('whoto@otherdomain.com', 'John Doe');
  $mail->SetFrom('name@yourdomain.com', 'First Last');
  $mail->AddReplyTo('name@yourdomain.com', 'First Last');
  $mail->Subject = 'PHPMailer Test Subject via mail(), advanced';
  $mail->AltBody = 'To view the message, please use an HTML compatible email viewer!';     // optional - MsgHTML will create an alternate automatically
  $mail->MsgHTML(file_get_contents('contents.html'));
  $mail->AddAttachment('images/phpmailer.gif');      // attachment
  $mail->AddAttachment('images/phpmailer_mini.gif'); // attachment
  $mail->Send();
  echo "Message Sent OK<p></p>\n";
} catch (phpmailerException $e) {
  echo $e->errorMessage(); //Pretty error messages from PHPMailer
} catch (Exception $e) {
  echo $e->getMessage(); //Boring error messages from anything else!
}

Edit:

Following up on your comment.. For a simple GMail example, try this:

require_once('../class.phpmailer.php');
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

$mail->IsSMTP();

try {
  $mail->SMTPAuth   = true;                  // enable SMTP authentication
  $mail->SMTPSecure = "tls";                 // sets the prefix to the servier
  $mail->Host       = "smtp.gmail.com";      // sets GMAIL as the SMTP server
  $mail->Port       = 587;                   // set the SMTP port for the GMAIL server
  $mail->Username   = "yourusername@gmail.com";  // GMAIL username
  $mail->Password   = "yourpassword";            // GMAIL password

  //This is the "Mail From:" field
  $mail->SetFrom('name@yourdomain.com', 'First Last');
  //This is the "Mail To:" field
  $mail->AddAddress('whoto@otherdomain.com', 'John Doe');
  $mail->Subject = 'PHPMailer Test Subject via mail(), advanced';
  $mail->Body     = "Hi! \n\n This is my first e-mail sent through PHPMailer.";

  $mail->Send();
  echo "Message Sent OK<p></p>\n";
} catch (phpmailerException $e) {
  echo $e->errorMessage(); //Pretty error messages from PHPMailer
} catch (Exception $e) {
  echo $e->getMessage(); //Boring error messages from anything else!
}

Edit2:

The reason why you're getting this error is because you have an extra ' on your string:

Replace

$mail->Host = "'smtp.gmail.com";

with:

$mail->Host = "smtp.gmail.com";

The easiest way to get mail sending up and running is to install and configure postfix. You can use:

yum install postfix

And check out the documentation here:

http://www.postfix.org/docs.html

You can use the LAMPStack from BitNami. It comes with an easy installer that installs everything you need and you'll be running in minutes.