MySQL localhost / 127.0.0.1 problem

Question

I have a local web server running on my macbook and I've come across a strange problem. I can access MySQL just fine using a program like Sequel Pro, password works and life is great.

Within PHP, if I have the db server as 127.0.0.1, everything works as well.

However, if I change the db server to localhost, I get access denied for 'root'@'localhost' errors. I've made sure the MySQL socket is setup correctly, but still cannot use localhost.

Any insight would be awesome. Thanks!

Answer 1

Besides Michael's words,

there's another link: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/connecting.html, it says:

On Unix, MySQL programs treat the host name localhost specially, in a way that is likely different from what you expect compared to other network-based programs. For connections to localhost, MySQL programs attempt to connect to the local server by using a Unix socket file. This occurs even if a --port or -P option is given to specify a port number.

it's not a typical tcp/ip connection. if u have local port forwarding from 127.0.0.1:3306 to 192.168.1.2:3306, "mysql -h localhost" will try to connect to local unix socket file.

it's not specific to your question(since u're running php), but hope it helps anyway.

Answer 2

From here.

Set the initial password for the root user on localhost.

SET PASSWORD FOR root@localhost=PASSWORD('new_password'); FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Answer 3

In your my.cnf file, either change your bind-address to localhost or remove the bind-address setting entirely (which will make mysql listen on all IP's).

The my.cnf file is usually in /etc or /etc/mysql.

Answer 4

This is what fixed it for me. PHP.INI defaults to a different location than MySQL for the default socket. To fix, just run these two commands to add an alias (no restart needed):

mkdir /var/mysql
ln -s /tmp/mysql.sock /var/mysql/mysql.sock

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