Re: mail() on *nix using ssmtp or an external smtp server?

I've been trying further to get ssmtp working with apache/php in a chrooted envrionment and have had some success on Linux, so I'm sharing it with everyone else. I've also come to understand quite well how the mail() function is implemented in php too, and actually it's quite simple. All directories that I speak of below are relative to the new root directory in the chrooted environment. First thing is ssmtp expects to find its config files in /etc/ssmtp/, so that needs to be created inside the chrooted environment. The real killer for this whole thing however, and seemingly where everything was falling over, is that I had to put ssmtp in the /usr/sbin/ directory. For reasons that totally illude me, if ssmtp is in the /bin directory or anywhere else, mail() fails!?!?! The php.ini file needs to be in the usual /usr/local/lib/ location, and the sendmail parameter in the php.ini file needs to be set to "/usr/sbin/ssmtp -t". Do not try any other flags, otherwise mail() fails. The attempts I've made today have brought results and are reproducible. This also works in a normal (that is not chrooted) environment. The demanded location of the ssmtp binary is by far the most bizarre thing I have had in this whole exercise, and I would appreciate it if someone else might be able to take the time to confirm my findings. What I also don't understand is that if I have ssmtp in the /bin directory (or anywhere else for that matter) and invoke it from the command line in a chrooted environment, it works happily. It also worked happily when I wrote my own short C program that emulated what is done in the PHP mail delivery procedures. For what ever reason, it just refused to work through PHP if it was anywhere other than /usr/sbin/ssmtp. So ssmtp in a chrooted environment, provided it's in /usr/sbin/, works well on a Linux box, but on AIX machines, it still fails completely and I don't yet know why. As I have done this time, if I have any success, I will post to the list so other people can know. If anyone else has some success with this on AIX, I would greatly appreciate knowing about it. best regards Markus