Mysql – Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket homebrew

I once had this problem and solved it by installing mysql-server, so make sure that you have installed the mysql-server, not the mysql-client or something else.

That error means the file /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock doesn't exists, if you didn't install mysql-server, then the file would not exist. So in that case, install it with

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

But if the mysql-server is already installed and is running, then you need to check the config files.

The config files are:

/etc/my.cnf
/etc/mysql/my.cnf
/var/lib/mysql/my.cnf

In /etc/my.cnf, the socket file config may be /tmp/mysql.sock and in /etc/mysql/my.cnf the socket file config may be /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock. So, remove or rename /etc/mysql/my.cnf, let mysql use /etc/my.cnf, then the problem may solved.

You'll need to start MySQL before you can use the mysql command on your terminal. To do this, run brew services start mysql. By default, brew installs the MySQL database without a root password. To secure it run: mysql_secure_installation.

To connect run: mysql -uroot. root is the username name here.