how to use php mail on fedora - php

Question

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 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!
}
?>

Answer 1

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";

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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.