ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock'

Question

I installed MySQL on Mac OS X Mountain Lion with homebrew install mysql, but when I tried mysql -u root I got the following error:

Answer 1

This happened after the homebrew install and occurs due to permission issues. The following commands fixed the issue.

sudo chown -R _mysql:mysql /usr/local/var/mysql

sudo mysql.server start

Answer 2

This fixed my issue when I restarted the mysql service. Just run:

brew services start mysql

Answer 3

this problem related to /usr/local/var/mysql folder access, I remove this folder and reinstall mysql.

1. uninstall mysql with brew :

   brew uninstall mysql

2. sudo rm -r /usr/local/var/mysql

3. brew install mysql@8.0
4. mysql -u root

This solution works fine for me! BUT YOU LOST ALL YOUR DATABASES! WARNING!

Answer 4

Warning - this method will remove all of your databases in the /usr/local/var/mysql folder

I had MySQL installed with Homebrew, and the only thing that fixed this for me was re-installing MySQL.

On my company laptop, I didn't have permission to uninstall MySQL from my computer via Homebrew:

$ brew uninstall mysql --ignore-dependencies
Uninstalling /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/8.0.12... (255 files, 233.0MB)
Error: Permission denied @ dir_s_rmdir - /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/8.0.12

So instead, I removed and reinstalled MySQL manually:

$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/Cellar/mysql
$ brew cleanup
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/var/mysql
$ brew install mysql

And that worked!

Answer 5

As others have pointed out this is because MySQL is installed but the service isn't running. There are many ways to start the MySQL service and what worked for me is the below.

To start the service:

1. Go to "System Preference"
2. At the bottom pane there should be MySql icon.
3. Double click that to launch the 'MySQL Server Status' and press the button 'Start MySQL Server'

My env:

Mac Yosemite 10.10.3

Installed Package: /Volumes/mysql-advanced-5.6.24-osx10.8-x86_64

Answer 6

I went through this issue and I managed to run mysql server using below solution

Install mysql through .dmg(https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.7.html), you will get mysql service panel in system preferences then start mysql from the panel and try

mysql -u root -p

Images attached for reference