Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)

Question

I am getting the following error when I try to connect to mysql:

Can\'t connect to local MySQL server through socket \'/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock\' (2)<

Answer 1

Just edit /etc/my.cnf Add following lines to my.cnf

[mysqld]

socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock 

[client]

socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

Restart mysql and connect again

mysql -u user -p password database -h host;

Answer 2

Check if your mysqld service is running or not, if not run, start the service.

If your problem isn't solved, look for /etc/my.cnf and modify as following, where you see a line starting with socket. Take a backup of that file before doing this update.

socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock  

Change to

socket=/opt/lampp/var/mysql/mysql.sock -u root

Answer 3

One way to reproduce this error: If you meant to connect to a foreign server but instead connect to the non existent local one:

eric@dev ~ $ mysql -u dev -p
Enter password:
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through 
socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)
eric@dev ~ $

So you have to specify the host like this:

eric@dev ~ $ mysql --host=yourdb.yourserver.com -u dev -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 235
Server version: 5.6.19 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> show databases;
+-------------------------+
| Database                |
+-------------------------+
| information_schema      |
| mysql                   |
| performance_schema      |
+-------------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> exit
Bye
eric@dev ~ $

Answer 4

Are you connecting to "localhost" or "127.0.0.1" ? I noticed that when you connect to "localhost" the socket connector is used, but when you connect to "127.0.0.1" the TCP/IP connector is used. You could try using "127.0.0.1" if the socket connector is not enabled/working.

Answer 5

Make sure you started the server:

mysql.server start

Then connect with root user:

mysql -uroot

Answer 6

If your mysql was previously working and has stopped suddenly just "reboot" the server.

Was facing this issue on my CentOS VPS.->

Was constantly getting

Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock'(2)

Tried all techniques, finally restarting the server fixed the issues ->

shutdown -r now

Hope this helps !!