Pipe an email to a PHP script

[akristof]

I set up an email address on my server "[e-mail]" and I want every emailed received to be sent to a php script, call it script.php.

My hosting service uses CPanel11, where their forwarding function allows to pipe an email to a program.

I set it up as
|/home/ubitig/public_html/script.php

And the on top of that file I say
#!/usr/local/bin/php -q

And I changed the permissions on that php file to 755 to make it executable

This is all following instruction from cpanel and whatever I have been able to find on the web

When I send an email to that email address I get 1 of the three following errors:

1. "local delivery failed"

2.

Error in argument 1, char 3: option not found
Usage: php [-q] [-h] [-s] [-v] [-i] [-f <file>]
      php <file> [args...]
 -a               Run interactively
 -b <address:port>|<port> Bind Path for external FASTCGI Server mode
 -C               Do not chdir to the script's directory
 -c <path>|<file> Look for php.ini file in this directory
 -n               No php.ini file will be used
 -d foo[=bar]     Define INI entry foo with value 'bar'
 -e               Generate extended information for debugger/profiler
 -f <file>        Parse <file>.  Implies `-q'
 -h               This help
 -i               PHP information
 -l               Syntax check only (lint)
 -m               Show compiled in modules
 -q               Quiet-mode.  Suppress HTTP Header output.
 -s               Display colour syntax highlighted source.
 -v               Version number
 -w               Display source with stripped comments and whitespace.
 -z <file>        Load Zend extension <file>.
 -T <count>       Measure execution time of script repeated <count> times.
 

3.

Usage: php [options] [-f] <file> [--] [args...]
      php [options] -r <code> [--] [args...]
      php [options] [-B <begin_code>] -R <code> [-E <end_code>] [--] [args...]
      php [options] [-B <begin_code>] -F <file> [-E <end_code>] [--] [args...]
      php [options] -- [args...]
      php [options] -a
 
 -a               Run interactively
 -c <path>|<file> Look for php.ini file in this directory
 -n               No php.ini file will be used
 -d foo[=bar]     Define INI entry foo with value 'bar'
 -e               Generate extended information for debugger/profiler
 -f <file>        Parse and execute <file>.
 -h               This help
 -i               PHP information
 -l               Syntax check only (lint)
 -m               Show compiled in modules
 -r <code>        Run PHP <code> without using script tags <?..?>
 -B <begin_code>  Run PHP <begin_code> before processing input lines
 -R <code>        Run PHP <code> for every input line
 -F <file>        Parse and execute <file> for every input line
 -E <end_code>    Run PHP <end_code> after processing all input lines
 -H               Hide any passed arguments from external tools.
 -s               Output HTML syntax highlighted source.
 -v               Version number
 -w               Output source with stripped comments and whitespace.
 -z <file>        Load Zend extension <file>.
 
 args...          Arguments passed to script. Use -- args when first argument
                  starts with - or script is read from stdin
 
 --ini            Show configuration file names
 
 --rf <name>      Show information about function <name>.
 --rc <name>      Show information about class <name>.
 --re <name>      Show information about extension <name>.
 --ri <name>      Show configuration for extension <name>.
 

The contents of my php file send a simple test email back to my email address (I tested the script through the browser and it worked).

The difference between first and second error is that I removed any space between the "-q" and the opening tag of the php code "<?php".

I have tried a million combinations of different things and nothing seems to work. If anyone has experience with setting up pipes in cpanel or has any suggestions, it would be super helpful.

Thanks
A

[Luuk]

cat file  | php -r ' $line = fgets(STDIN); echo $line; '

this should echo the first line of the file

[akristof]

Sorry..I'm not sure I understand. Where does this go?

[Luuk]

Its an example of how to pipe the output of a file (or process) to PHP.

If you have a something.php like this:

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
$line=fgets(STDIN); print $line."\n";
?>
 

Than

echo "123" | something.php

Will produce as output:
123