I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
any way of receiving them by php?

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:51:02 +0100, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

> I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
> any way of receiving them by php?

Not easily.

You possibly could write an entire local "Mail Delivery Agent" in PHP, to
deliver email locally, but this would only be a programming exercise, as
there are a wide variety of standard, usable, open MDAs available, and
the work of an MDA is not trivial. But, an MDA only delivers mail locally;
to receive email from the outside, you need an "Mail Transfer Agent" (or
MTA).

You might be able to write an entire local "Mail Transfer Agent" in PHP,
to receive and process external email, but this would again only be a
programming exercise, as there are a wide variety of standard, usable,
open MTAs available, and the work of an MTA is even harder than an MDA.

On the other hand, you can definitely write a web-paged "Mail User Agent"
in PHP to interface a webpage with your existing MDA so that PHP can
retrieve any already-received emails from the MDA (typically using either
the POP or IMAP protocols. There are a few of these PHP-based MDA's
available; SquirrelMail and RoundCube are good examples.

HTH
--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills, We Trust"

On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:19:10 Lew Pitcher wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:51:02 +0100, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
>> I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
>> any way of receiving them by php?

> Not easily.

Depends on how you define "receive".

> You possibly could write an entire local "Mail Delivery Agent" in
> PHP, [...]

Perhaps Liz only wants to process incoming emails with PHP. In this
case it is not at all necessary to implement a delivery agent, but
piping emails (by whatever means) from an existing mail agent into
the PHP script would suffice.

Bye,
Stefan

--
http://kontaktinser.at/ - die kostenlose Kontaktboerse fuer Oesterreich
Offizieller Erstbesucher(TM) von mmeike

Stefan - die verblüffendste Veralberung der Symbiose.</b
(Sloganizer)

On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:02:56 +0000, Stefan Froehlich wrote:

> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:19:10 Lew Pitcher wrote:
>> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:51:02 +0100, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
>>> I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
>>> any way of receiving them by php?
>
>> Not easily.
>
> Depends on how you define "receive".
>
>> You possibly could write an entire local "Mail Delivery Agent" in
>> PHP, [...]
>
> Perhaps Liz only wants to process incoming emails with PHP. In this
> case it is not at all necessary to implement a delivery agent, but
> piping emails (by whatever means) from an existing mail agent into
> the PHP script would suffice.

What you describe is, in effect, a "Mail User Agent" (or MUA), and
(as I said) an MUA is relatively easy to create with PHP.

> Bye,
> Stefan

--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills, We Trust"

On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 13:51:02 +0100, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid (Liz Tuddenham) wrote:

>I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
>any way of receiving them by php?

You can pipe emails into a PHP script, the ability to do this does depend on your server.
It might be in your mail forwarding settings. Look for "pipe to program".

You can then create a php script that does something like this ...

#!/usr/local/bin/php -q
<?php
$fd = fopen("php://stdin", "r");
$email_content = "";
while (!feof($fd)) {
$email_content .= fread($fd, 1024);
}
fclose($fd);

//split the string into array of strings, each of the string represents a single line,
received
$lines = explode("\n", $email_content);
// initialize variable which will assigned later on
$from = "";
$to = "";
$subject = "";
$headers = "";
$message = "";
$is_header= true;

--
Regards, Paul Herber
https://www.paulherber.co.uk/

On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 17:27:59 Lew Pitcher wrote:
> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:02:56 +0000, Stefan Froehlich wrote:
>> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:19:10 Lew Pitcher wrote:
>>> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:51:02 +0100, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
>>>> I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
>>>> any way of receiving them by php?
>>
>>> Not easily.
>>
>> Depends on how you define "receive".
>>
>>> You possibly could write an entire local "Mail Delivery Agent" in
>>> PHP, [...]
>>
>> Perhaps Liz only wants to process incoming emails with PHP. In this
>> case it is not at all necessary to implement a delivery agent, but
>> piping emails (by whatever means) from an existing mail agent into
>> the PHP script would suffice.
> What you describe is, in effect, a "Mail User Agent" (or MUA), and
> (as I said) an MUA is relatively easy to create with PHP.

Ok. In my eyes a MUA is reading some mail box on request of it's
user (pull action) while piping into a (PHP- or other) script is a
push action. But as far as the processing is concerned there is
indeed no difference.

Bye,
Stefan

--
http://kontaktinser.at/ - die kostenlose Kontaktboerse fuer Oesterreich
Offizieller Erstbesucher(TM) von mmeike

Stefan - Für den Genießer von Welt: Kosen weil es fasst!
(Sloganizer)

Stefan Froehlich <Stefan+Usenet@Froehlich.Priv.at> wrote:

> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 17:27:59 Lew Pitcher wrote:
> > On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:02:56 +0000, Stefan Froehlich wrote:
> >> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:19:10 Lew Pitcher wrote:
> >>> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:51:02 +0100, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> >>>> I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
> >>>> any way of receiving them by php?
> >>
> >>> Not easily.
> >>
> >> Depends on how you define "receive".
> >>
> >>> You possibly could write an entire local "Mail Delivery Agent" in
> >>> PHP, [...]
> >>
> >> Perhaps Liz only wants to process incoming emails with PHP. In this
> >> case it is not at all necessary to implement a delivery agent, but
> >> piping emails (by whatever means) from an existing mail agent into
> >> the PHP script would suffice.
>
> > What you describe is, in effect, a "Mail User Agent" (or MUA), and
> > (as I said) an MUA is relatively easy to create with PHP.
>
> Ok. In my eyes a MUA is reading some mail box on request of it's
> user (pull action) while piping into a (PHP- or other) script is a
> push action. But as far as the processing is concerned there is
> indeed no difference.

Thanks for all the replies. I was almost expecting to find it was
impossible, but now you have given me some guidance on where to look and
what to search for.. I have never gone into this in any depth before,
so it will involve quite a lot of work just getting to grips with the
basics, which is something I was reluctant to spend a lot of time on if
there wasn't likely to be any outcome.

Your replies were encouraging, so I'll go away and do my research.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On 4/4/2022 12:47 PM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> Stefan Froehlich <Stefan+Usenet@Froehlich.Priv.at> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 17:27:59 Lew Pitcher wrote:
>>> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:02:56 +0000, Stefan Froehlich wrote:
>>>> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:19:10 Lew Pitcher wrote:
>>>>> On Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:51:02 +0100, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
>>>>>> I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
>>>>>> any way of receiving them by php?
>>>>
>>>>> Not easily.
>>>>
>>>> Depends on how you define "receive".
>>>>
>>>>> You possibly could write an entire local "Mail Delivery Agent" in
>>>>> PHP, [...]
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps Liz only wants to process incoming emails with PHP. In this
>>>> case it is not at all necessary to implement a delivery agent, but
>>>> piping emails (by whatever means) from an existing mail agent into
>>>> the PHP script would suffice.
>>
>>> What you describe is, in effect, a "Mail User Agent" (or MUA), and
>>> (as I said) an MUA is relatively easy to create with PHP.
>>
>> Ok. In my eyes a MUA is reading some mail box on request of it's
>> user (pull action) while piping into a (PHP- or other) script is a
>> push action. But as far as the processing is concerned there is
>> indeed no difference.
>
> Thanks for all the replies. I was almost expecting to find it was
> impossible, but now you have given me some guidance on where to look and
> what to search for.. I have never gone into this in any depth before,
> so it will involve quite a lot of work just getting to grips with the
> basics, which is something I was reluctant to spend a lot of time on if
> there wasn't likely to be any outcome.
>
> Your replies were encouraging, so I'll go away and do my research.
>

The real question her is - what are you trying to do exactly? Do you
need a script to receive email from external sources? That would be an
MTA (Mail Transport Agent), which as others have indicated is very
complicated.

If you want a script to get all emails as they come in, then as
indicated you can pipe the email to a PHP script to process it. This
requires a modification to your MTA, which may or may not be possible
depending on your platform.

The other option is to process the email when it has been received and
is awaiting delivery on you to retrieve it. In that case you need to
handle the POP3 or IMAP interface, depending on what your server uses.
There are PHP interfaces for both as well as scripts to do some things
like create a web interface for IMAP processing.

So if you can expand on exactly what you're trying to do we can help more.

--
==================
Remove the "x"'s from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
stucklex.jerryx@gmail.com
==================

Jerry Stuckle <stuckle.jerry@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]
> The real question her is - what are you trying to do exactly? Do you
> need a script to receive email from external sources? That would be an
> MTA (Mail Transport Agent), which as others have indicated is very
> complicated.
>
> If you want a script to get all emails as they come in, then as
> indicated you can pipe the email to a PHP script to process it. This
> requires a modification to your MTA, which may or may not be possible
> depending on your platform.
>
> The other option is to process the email when it has been received and
> is awaiting delivery on you to retrieve it. In that case you need to
> handle the POP3 or IMAP interface, depending on what your server uses.
> There are PHP interfaces for both as well as scripts to do some things
> like create a web interface for IMAP processing.
>
> So if you can expand on exactly what you're trying to do we can help more.

This is a problem that has grown stupidly complex from small beginnings:

The server that hosts my business domain was updated and now will not
accept my outgoing e-mails because they don't contain the latest
security features. I therefore have to send them through the server of
my broadband provider. (I cannot change my e-mailer for legacy
reasons.)

My broadband runs on a landline rented from a different supplier from my
broadband provider because it allows me to dial a prefix that connects
to an independent system for very cheap telephone calls. My broadband
username is based on my full name and this is the return name shown on
e-mails that heve been sent to the broadband server. All my security
checks with other services use that account name.

I am transgender and have recntly changed my name. Every time I send an
e-mail I am 'outing' myself with my previous name but I have signed a
Deed Poll that legally requires me to cease using my previous name.
Therefore I need to change the name on my broadband account.

The account name is the one thing that cannot be changed, so the only
way I can change the e-mail name is by closing that account and opening
another one. My broadband provider no longer offers a package that runs
on landlines rented from another supplier, so I would have to buy a much
more expensive package than my existing one and would lose my cheap
'phone call facility and all my security checks.

I am looking into various alternatives that would not involve enormous
disruption, loss of archives, a great increase in expenditure or any
other undesirable side effects. It occurred to me that if my business
domain server could accept e-mails through php, without the extra layer
of security checks, these could then be forwarded with my business
domain shown as the origin.

(I cannot discuss this with my business domain host at present because
the proprietor has gone down with Covid)

Apologies for the tortuous nature of my reply, but it was the only way
to explain the whole problem.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On 4/5/2022 4:09 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> Jerry Stuckle <stuckle.jerry@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [...]
>> The real question her is - what are you trying to do exactly? Do you
>> need a script to receive email from external sources? That would be an
>> MTA (Mail Transport Agent), which as others have indicated is very
>> complicated.
>>
>> If you want a script to get all emails as they come in, then as
>> indicated you can pipe the email to a PHP script to process it. This
>> requires a modification to your MTA, which may or may not be possible
>> depending on your platform.
>>
>> The other option is to process the email when it has been received and
>> is awaiting delivery on you to retrieve it. In that case you need to
>> handle the POP3 or IMAP interface, depending on what your server uses.
>> There are PHP interfaces for both as well as scripts to do some things
>> like create a web interface for IMAP processing.
>>
>> So if you can expand on exactly what you're trying to do we can help more.
>
>
> This is a problem that has grown stupidly complex from small beginnings:
>
> The server that hosts my business domain was updated and now will not
> accept my outgoing e-mails because they don't contain the latest
> security features. I therefore have to send them through the server of
> my broadband provider. (I cannot change my e-mailer for legacy
> reasons.)
>
> My broadband runs on a landline rented from a different supplier from my
> broadband provider because it allows me to dial a prefix that connects
> to an independent system for very cheap telephone calls. My broadband
> username is based on my full name and this is the return name shown on
> e-mails that heve been sent to the broadband server. All my security
> checks with other services use that account name.
>
> I am transgender and have recntly changed my name. Every time I send an
> e-mail I am 'outing' myself with my previous name but I have signed a
> Deed Poll that legally requires me to cease using my previous name.
> Therefore I need to change the name on my broadband account.
>
> The account name is the one thing that cannot be changed, so the only
> way I can change the e-mail name is by closing that account and opening
> another one. My broadband provider no longer offers a package that runs
> on landlines rented from another supplier, so I would have to buy a much
> more expensive package than my existing one and would lose my cheap
> 'phone call facility and all my security checks.
>
> I am looking into various alternatives that would not involve enormous
> disruption, loss of archives, a great increase in expenditure or any
> other undesirable side effects. It occurred to me that if my business
> domain server could accept e-mails through php, without the extra layer
> of security checks, these could then be forwarded with my business
> domain shown as the origin.
>
> (I cannot discuss this with my business domain host at present because
> the proprietor has gone down with Covid)
>
> Apologies for the tortuous nature of my reply, but it was the only way
> to explain the whole problem.
>

Liz,

OK you're looking at something far more complicated than a way to
receive emails. You would need to create your own MTA on the server,
and your business domain server would definitely frown on that. They
have the security rules in place for a reason.

I think your best bet is to find out what security features are
rejecting your emails and fix that. My guess would be they are
requiring at least TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.2 and your system is
running TLS 1.0 or 1.1, which are no longer supported and not secure.

Your best bet is to find out what security features they require now and
implement those on your end. That may require upgrading your email
program.

--
==================
Remove the "x"'s from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
stucklex.jerryx@gmail.com
==================

Jerry Stuckle <stuckle.jerry@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 4/5/2022 4:09 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> > Jerry Stuckle <stuckle.jerry@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> >> The real question her is - what are you trying to do exactly? Do you
> >> need a script to receive email from external sources? That would be an
> >> MTA (Mail Transport Agent), which as others have indicated is very
> >> complicated.
> >>
> >> If you want a script to get all emails as they come in, then as
> >> indicated you can pipe the email to a PHP script to process it. This
> >> requires a modification to your MTA, which may or may not be possible
> >> depending on your platform.
> >>
> >> The other option is to process the email when it has been received and
> >> is awaiting delivery on you to retrieve it. In that case you need to
> >> handle the POP3 or IMAP interface, depending on what your server uses.
> >> There are PHP interfaces for both as well as scripts to do some things
> >> like create a web interface for IMAP processing.
> >>
> >> So if you can expand on exactly what you're trying to do we can help more.
> >
> >
> > This is a problem that has grown stupidly complex from small beginnings:
> >
> > The server that hosts my business domain was updated and now will not
> > accept my outgoing e-mails because they don't contain the latest
> > security features. I therefore have to send them through the server of
> > my broadband provider. (I cannot change my e-mailer for legacy
> > reasons.)
> >
> > My broadband runs on a landline rented from a different supplier from my
> > broadband provider because it allows me to dial a prefix that connects
> > to an independent system for very cheap telephone calls. My broadband
> > username is based on my full name and this is the return name shown on
> > e-mails that heve been sent to the broadband server. All my security
> > checks with other services use that account name.
> >
> > I am transgender and have recntly changed my name. Every time I send an
> > e-mail I am 'outing' myself with my previous name but I have signed a
> > Deed Poll that legally requires me to cease using my previous name.
> > Therefore I need to change the name on my broadband account.
> >
> > The account name is the one thing that cannot be changed, so the only
> > way I can change the e-mail name is by closing that account and opening
> > another one. My broadband provider no longer offers a package that runs
> > on landlines rented from another supplier, so I would have to buy a much
> > more expensive package than my existing one and would lose my cheap
> > 'phone call facility and all my security checks.
> >
> > I am looking into various alternatives that would not involve enormous
> > disruption, loss of archives, a great increase in expenditure or any
> > other undesirable side effects. It occurred to me that if my business
> > domain server could accept e-mails through php, without the extra layer
> > of security checks, these could then be forwarded with my business
> > domain shown as the origin.
> >
> > (I cannot discuss this with my business domain host at present because
> > the proprietor has gone down with Covid)
> >
> > Apologies for the tortuous nature of my reply, but it was the only way
> > to explain the whole problem.
> >
>
> Liz,
>
> OK you're looking at something far more complicated than a way to
> receive emails. You would need to create your own MTA on the server,
> and your business domain server would definitely frown on that. They
> have the security rules in place for a reason.
>
> I think your best bet is to find out what security features are
> rejecting your emails and fix that. My guess would be they are
> requiring at least TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.2 and your system is
> running TLS 1.0 or 1.1, which are no longer supported and not secure.

Thanks. My domain host looked into all that when the security system
changed and claimed it was impossible to back-track. Plusnet are still
managing to accept my e-mails, so it can't be too much of a problem.

> Your best bet is to find out what security features they require now and
> implement those on your end. That may require upgrading your email
> program.

I don't think there have been any upgrades recently. The program is
Claris Emailer 1.0.1; I can only remember one other issue that needed a
'fix' - and that was about 18 years ago. I've had to use more modern
e-mailers at work, but I find they are nowhere near as intuitive to use.
and none of them will handle my archive of messages.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On 4/5/2022 1:36 PM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
> Jerry Stuckle <stuckle.jerry@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 4/5/2022 4:09 AM, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
>>> Jerry Stuckle <stuckle.jerry@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> [...]
>>>> The real question her is - what are you trying to do exactly? Do you
>>>> need a script to receive email from external sources? That would be an
>>>> MTA (Mail Transport Agent), which as others have indicated is very
>>>> complicated.
>>>>
>>>> If you want a script to get all emails as they come in, then as
>>>> indicated you can pipe the email to a PHP script to process it. This
>>>> requires a modification to your MTA, which may or may not be possible
>>>> depending on your platform.
>>>>
>>>> The other option is to process the email when it has been received and
>>>> is awaiting delivery on you to retrieve it. In that case you need to
>>>> handle the POP3 or IMAP interface, depending on what your server uses.
>>>> There are PHP interfaces for both as well as scripts to do some things
>>>> like create a web interface for IMAP processing.
>>>>
>>>> So if you can expand on exactly what you're trying to do we can help more.
>>>
>>>
>>> This is a problem that has grown stupidly complex from small beginnings:
>>>
>>> The server that hosts my business domain was updated and now will not
>>> accept my outgoing e-mails because they don't contain the latest
>>> security features. I therefore have to send them through the server of
>>> my broadband provider. (I cannot change my e-mailer for legacy
>>> reasons.)
>>>
>>> My broadband runs on a landline rented from a different supplier from my
>>> broadband provider because it allows me to dial a prefix that connects
>>> to an independent system for very cheap telephone calls. My broadband
>>> username is based on my full name and this is the return name shown on
>>> e-mails that heve been sent to the broadband server. All my security
>>> checks with other services use that account name.
>>>
>>> I am transgender and have recntly changed my name. Every time I send an
>>> e-mail I am 'outing' myself with my previous name but I have signed a
>>> Deed Poll that legally requires me to cease using my previous name.
>>> Therefore I need to change the name on my broadband account.
>>>
>>> The account name is the one thing that cannot be changed, so the only
>>> way I can change the e-mail name is by closing that account and opening
>>> another one. My broadband provider no longer offers a package that runs
>>> on landlines rented from another supplier, so I would have to buy a much
>>> more expensive package than my existing one and would lose my cheap
>>> 'phone call facility and all my security checks.
>>>
>>> I am looking into various alternatives that would not involve enormous
>>> disruption, loss of archives, a great increase in expenditure or any
>>> other undesirable side effects. It occurred to me that if my business
>>> domain server could accept e-mails through php, without the extra layer
>>> of security checks, these could then be forwarded with my business
>>> domain shown as the origin.
>>>
>>> (I cannot discuss this with my business domain host at present because
>>> the proprietor has gone down with Covid)
>>>
>>> Apologies for the tortuous nature of my reply, but it was the only way
>>> to explain the whole problem.
>>>
>>
>> Liz,
>>
>> OK you're looking at something far more complicated than a way to
>> receive emails. You would need to create your own MTA on the server,
>> and your business domain server would definitely frown on that. They
>> have the security rules in place for a reason.
>>
>> I think your best bet is to find out what security features are
>> rejecting your emails and fix that. My guess would be they are
>> requiring at least TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.2 and your system is
>> running TLS 1.0 or 1.1, which are no longer supported and not secure.
>
> Thanks. My domain host looked into all that when the security system
> changed and claimed it was impossible to back-track. Plusnet are still
> managing to accept my e-mails, so it can't be too much of a problem.
>

Yes, it can be a huge problem. It's very likely your business domain
host upgraded their MTA and it now requires TLS 1.2 or higher or some
similar restriction. To accept the earlier version (which is no longer
supported because it is insecure) would mean replacing their MTA with an
older version that is less secure.

Your other email hosting hasn't upgraded their system yet or are using a
different MTA which is why they are accepting your emails.

>> Your best bet is to find out what security features they require now and
>> implement those on your end. That may require upgrading your email
>> program.
>
> I don't think there have been any upgrades recently. The program is
> Claris Emailer 1.0.1; I can only remember one other issue that needed a
> 'fix' - and that was about 18 years ago. I've had to use more modern
> e-mailers at work, but I find they are nowhere near as intuitive to use.
> and none of them will handle my archive of messages.
>
>

You said they upgraded their server. Along with that they would have
updated their MTA.

But you have another problem, also. Claris Emailer was discontinued by
Apple in 1998 and has not been supported since that time. It almost
assuredly does not support the newer security protocols and as hosting
companies upgrade their email servers you will find fewer hosts will
support it. My suggestion is to change to a supported email client. It
will be much easier than trying to get around your hosting company's
security.

--
==================
Remove the "x"'s from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
stucklex.jerryx@gmail.com
==================

Liz Tuddenham:

> I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
> any way of receiving them by php?

Yes - implement your own mailserver.

Seriously: No - you should not use PHP to receive e-mails. Use a server
like Postfix to reveive the mail and PHP to read what Postfix stored.
You may even combine Postfix and Dovecot and use IMAP to access the mail
storage of Dovecot.

--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de

Le 4/04/22 à 14:51, Liz Tuddenham a écrit :
> I appreciate that e-mails can be sent from a server by php, but Is there
> any way of receiving them by php?
>
Depend of system you runing on.
If you are using sendmail (typically linux or Unix) it's (was) possible
to run a script when it receive a email.
Configuring sendmail for that is not very complicated see smrsh