Emails fail on certain server setups

[Clorith]

In 4.6 (see r38058) we changed how we apply the from email and name, we now use PHPMailers own setFrom() function call.

This function can also autoamtically populates the $Sender variable (which it does by default).

Further down, when mailSend() is called, the behavior differs slightly if $Sender is already set, we set a parameter of -f.

It would appear some hosts do not allow the use of this flag, leading to emails no longer going out.

Attaching a simple patch that tells PHPMailer not to populate this variable, as we previously set the from name and email directly and never saw the $Sender variable, this allows us to keep using PHPMailers internal functions, while avoiding the $Sender flag like we did pre-4.6

[swissspidy]

#37725 was marked as a duplicate.

[iandunn]

I was bit by this too. Serves me right, since I introduced it in 21659.4.diff :(

I installed Clorth's patch as a hotfix in production and that seems to be working. I'll look out for any problems and drop a note here if I see any.

I imagine this is affecting a lot of people in the wild, and the nature of it will make it fail silently in most cases. I wonder if it should it be marked as a high priority? cc @stephenharris, @boonebgorges, @cbutlerjr

[boonebgorges]

Change seems right to me. Could we get a review from @ocean90 or @dd32?

[cbutlerjr]

the nature of it will make it fail silently in most cases.

yeowch! That warrants a high priority. Thanks @boonebgorges for changing priority.

[iandunn]

I'm working on a unit test, but it looks like it might require refactoring MockPHPMailer so that PHPMailer::postSend() isn't overridden.

[iandunn]

Doh, nevermind, it's easy. I'll upload a patch soon.

[dd32]

Replying to boonebgorges:

Change seems right to me. Could we get a review from @ocean90 or @dd32?

Change seems correct to me too, especially with the addition of the unit test (Thanks @iandunn!)

[aaroncampbell]

We ran into this with a customer whose notification mails started getting bounced. We tracked the fix to exactly what's in the patch here, and then ended up finding this ticket while opening our own.

So +1 on committing

[aaroncampbell]

Looks like in the overlap in comments I accidentally removed the commit keyword.

[DrewAPicture]

37736.diff​ simply combines @Clorith's fix patch with @iandunn's tests patch.

[boonebgorges]

In 38286:

Mail: Don't set Sender field when setting From.

[38058] changed wp_mail() so that it used PHPMailer's setFrom()
method rather than setting the From and FromName headers directly. See
behavior of setting the Sender field. This causes mail to be
called with the -f flag, which causes outgoing email to fail on some
server environments.

Props Clorith, iandunn, DrewAPicture.
Fixes #37736.

[boonebgorges]

Reopening for 4.6.1.

[boonebgorges]

In 38287:

Mail: Don't set Sender field when setting From.

[38058] changed wp_mail() so that it used PHPMailer's setFrom()
method rather than setting the From and FromName headers directly. See
behavior of setting the Sender field. This causes mail to be
called with the -f flag, which causes outgoing email to fail on some
server environments.

Merges [38286] to the 4.6 branch.

Props Clorith, iandunn, DrewAPicture.
Fixes #37736.

[swissspidy]

#37881 was marked as a duplicate.

[MattyRob]

#18792 was marked as a duplicate.

[peterwsterling]

Yep - defo fixes the problem. When will this be released?

[swissspidy]

4.6.1 is scheduled for release on September 7, see ​https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/01/4-6-1-release-candidate/

[travisnorthcutt]

I haven't been able to fully track this down yet, but FYI I'm seeing problems that look like they may be related to this, when creating new sites on a multisite install, running 4.6.1.

I get:

Fatal error: Uncaught phpmailerException: Invalid address: wordpress@

Which appears to come from the following code around line 324 of /wp-includes/pluggable.php:

if ( !isset( $from_email ) ) {
                // Get the site domain and get rid of www.
                $sitename = strtolower( $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] );
                if ( substr( $sitename, 0, 4 ) == 'www.' ) {
                        $sitename = substr( $sitename, 4 );
                }

                $from_email = 'wordpress@' . $sitename;
        }

So it would seem that in this case $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] isn't set, and PHPMailer->setFrom() doesn't care for wordpress@ as a from address (as it shouldn't).

Edit to add more info: this is on my local machine, using Laravel Valet, so the webserver is [Caddy](​https://caddyserver.com/)

[Clorith]

It looks like caddy serves PHP over fastcgi, and might not be declaring some env variables (such as $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']) that we rely on.

Have a look at ​https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/fastcgiexample/ which has information on how to declare them, I believe that would be beneficial to you here.

[joemcgill]

Replying to Clorith:

It looks like caddy serves PHP over fastcgi, and might not be declaring some env variables (such as $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']) that we rely on.

Have a look at ​https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/fastcgiexample/ which has information on how to declare them, I believe that would be beneficial to you here.

Possibly related: #25239

[travisnorthcutt]

Replying to joemcgill:

Possibly related: #25239

Yep, looks like that's exactly what I've run into. Thanks.

[babakneza]

Hi,
I found a simpler solution for this problem. I was go to my host cpanel create an email on my host (for example info@…) and in woocommerce settings> emails > Email Sender Options > "From" Address > I add that new email there. Then the error was fixed and wordpress is now working without Fatal error.
I hope this solution will help some one.