The function "mail()" is used to send an email directly from a script.

    mail(to,subject,message,headers,parameters)

In the above syntax "to" specifies the receivers email address, "subject" specifies the mails subject, "message" specifies the content of the image, "headers" specifies the optional field for additional headers like from, cc, bcc, "parameters" specifies optional field for adding envelope sender address.

    <?php
    $to      = 'nobody@example.com';
    $subject = 'the subject';
    $message = 'hello';
    $headers = 'From: webmaster@example.com' . "\r\n" .
             'Reply-To: webmaster@example.com' . "\r\n" .
             'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
    mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
    ?>

In the above PHP script additional headers are added to the code like from, reply-to, etc. The mail() function returns TRUE if the email was successfully accepted for delivery, otherwise it returns FALSE.