[Pkg-roundcube-maintainers] Bug#494135: roundcube: PHP mail() failing silently

[Gilles Sadowski]

Package: roundcube
Version: 0.1.1-7
Severity: important

Hello.

I did only minimal changes to the config file.  Namely relying on the
following excerpt from "main.inc.php":

// use this host for sending mails.
// to use SSL connection, set ssl://smtp.host.com
// if left blank, the PHP mail() function is used
$rcmail_config['smtp_server'] = '';

But I noticed that although the mail is being saved in a "Sent" folder
and a line being written to the log file name "sendmail":

 [07-Aug-2008 10:35:38 +0000] User: 1 on <my IP>; Message for <email address>;

no useful action seem to be performed (at least not actually sending the
mail).
Maybe this is normal (I don't know anything about PHP), but if this is so
shouldn't the requirements made clearer as to what to install in order
to make the "PHP mail() function" work?
Also isn't there some way for roundcube to know that the sending didn't
work (like when the "mail()" function didn't work) and report it to the log?

In the above snippet, I've added the name of a SMTP host; with that change,
mail is now actually sent.

Best,
Gilles

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.25.11-vs2.3.0.34.14+g1 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash