Using DBD::mysql with DBI, I am getting the following error when attempting to connect to the database.
DBI connect(\'database=mydb:host=localhost\',\'someuser\'
You can specify the location of the socket in the connect method
my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:database=dbname;host=localhost;mysql_socket=/path/to/mysql.sock","someuser","somepassword", {'RaiseError' => 1});
For further information please have a look at the docs here