Email piping with php script to collect the TO field? - php

Question

I want to forward my bounced emails to a php script to deal with them. I am using.
#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
// read from stdin
$fd = fopen("php://stdin", "r");
$email = "";
while (!feof($fd)) {
$email .= fread($fd, 1024);
}
fclose($fd);
// handle email
$lines = explode("\n", $email);
// empty vars
$from = "";
$subject = "";
$headers = "";
$message = "";
$splittingheaders = true;
for ($i=0; $i < count($lines); $i++) {
if ($splittingheaders) {
// this is a header
$headers .= $lines[$i]."\n";
// look out for special headers
if (preg_match("/^Subject: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches)) {
$subject = $matches[1];
}
if (preg_match("/^From: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches)) {
$from = $matches[1];
}
} else {
// not a header, but message
$message .= $lines[$i]."\n";
}
if (trim($lines[$i])=="") {
// empty line, header section has ended
$splittingheaders = false;
}
}
?>
Works perfect! But how do I collect the "To" field in the bounced message? I've tried just adding a $to variable but it doesn't work.
Any help would be great,
thanks,
EDIT: Actually I need to get the "TO" field within the body of the message. - The email that it bounced back from. How do I pull apart the body of the message to take specific info? Should I create a special header with the person's email so that it is easier to get this info?

Answer 1

If you can create a custom header, that would be easiest. Otherwise, you need to match against your entire body for a particular pattern; and if your body text can vary, it could be difficult to make sure you are always matching the correct text.
Custom headers should begin with X-, so maybe do something like:
if (preg_match("/^X-Originally-To: (.*)/", $lines[$i], $matches)) {
$originallyto = $matches[1];
}
But with X- headers, they are non-standard, so it is best to pick a name that is either
Commonly used exclusively for the same purpose, or
Not likely to be used by anyone else at all
One other thing you should be aware of; lines in a message should always end in "\r\n", so you might want to split on both characters (instead of just "\n") to ensure more consistent behaviour.