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Forwarding incoming e-mail messages to a script file

cPanel allows you to configure e‑mail forwarders not only to other addresses but also to pipe messages directly into a script. This is useful for automating tasks such as help desk ticket creation, mailing list management, or custom processing.

How It Works

Section titled “How It Works”

  • Instead of delivering mail to a mailbox, cPanel can pipe the message into a script.

  • The script runs on the server and processes the message in real time.

  • Common use cases:

    • Help desk systems (e.g., automatically creating support tickets).
    • Mailing list managers.
    • Custom automation (e.g., logging, parsing attachments).

Steps to Forward Mail to a Script

Section titled “Steps to Forward Mail to a Script”

  1. Log in to cPanel.

  2. On the Tools page, go to Email → Forwarders.

  3. Under Create an Email Account Forwarder, click Add Forwarder.

  4. Enter the address to forward (e.g., support@example.com).

  5. Under Destination, select Pipe to a Program.

  6. Enter the relative path to your script file.

    • Example:

      home/username/public_html/scripts/parse_mail.php

    • Do not include leading slashes (/).

  7. Click Add Forwarder.

Script Requirements

Section titled “Script Requirements”
  • The script must be executable by the server.
  • It should read the incoming message from standard input (stdin).
  • Example in PHP:
#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php
// Read email from stdin
$fd = fopen("php://stdin", "r");
$email = "";
while (!feof($fd)) {
    $email .= fread($fd, 1024);
}
fclose($fd);


// Process the email (example: log to file)
file_put_contents("/home/username/mail_log.txt", $email, FILE_APPEND);
?>
  • Ensure the script has correct permissions (usually 755).
  • Place the script in a secure directory (outside public_html if possible).