# Interacting with a MySQL database **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [October 24, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interacting-with-a-mysql-database/73388 "2006-10-24T10:00:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ed8c4c/32.png) [@virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/virtual)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interacting-with-a-mysql-database/73388/1 "2006-10-24T10:00:42Z")
Hi, I am on a OSX and have installed locomotive. I am competant enough at the momnent to create projects, controllers, models etc through terminal, however I am finding it hard to connect to a MySQL database. In the database config file I have set the username and password correctly but is still giving me an error. The error is somewhere along the lines of this (I am not 100% sure as I am not at my Mac at the moment): Could not connect to mysql database on temp/socket (2) Now, I think I might know why it isn’t working, but am not sure how to fix it. I am using MySQL from a MAMP installation, and Ruby with Locomotive (as previously stated). Ruby is running on port 3000, and MySQL on 8889 (I think). Do I need to change anything in the database connection info to allow for this, or should it be done automatically? Thanks, virtual. ---
**Author:** ![virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ed8c4c/32.png) [@virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/virtual)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interacting-with-a-mysql-database/73388/2 "2006-10-24T14:59:02Z")
Hi Virgil, Sounds like you need to add a “socket: /path/to/mysql.sock” line in your database.yml file. E.g. development: adapter: mysql database: db\_development username: ruby password: ruby host: localhost socket: /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock Of course, I’m speaking from a Linux perspective. Your milage may vary. Virgil Tual wrote: > Hi, I am on a OSX and have installed locomotive. I am competant enough > at the momnent to create projects, controllers, models etc through > terminal, however I am finding it hard to connect to a MySQL database. > In the database config file I have set the username and password > correctly but is still giving me an error. The error is somewhere along > the lines of this (I am not 100% sure as I am not at my Mac at the > moment): > > Could not connect to mysql database on temp/socket (2) > > Now, I think I might know why it isn’t working, but am not sure how to > fix it. I am using MySQL from a MAMP installation, and Ruby with > Locomotive (as previously stated). Ruby is running on port 3000, and > MySQL on 8889 (I think). Do I need to change anything in the database > connection info to allow for this, or should it be done automatically? > > Thanks, > virtual. ---
**Author:** ![virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ed8c4c/32.png) [@virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/virtual)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interacting-with-a-mysql-database/73388/3 "2006-10-24T20:18:34Z")
Thanks Colin, however that sadly didn’t work - still displayed the same error. Now that I am home I can give you some more detailed information. This is my current database.yml file: development: adapter: mysql database: blog\_development username: root password: root host: localhost socket: /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock The database exists, and MAMP is running with MySQK on port 8888 (I have tried adding Port: 8888 in the file wih again, no luck). The mysqld process is also running. I am running Locomotive2 and following the 15 minute blog tutorial on the rails site ([Ruby on Rails — A web-app framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.](http://www.rubyonrails.org/screencasts)). Everything was going smoothly until the dreaded database connection ☹ And help would be appreciated, starting to pull my hair out. Thanks, virtual Colin Wu wrote: > Hi Virgil, > > Sounds like you need to add a “socket: /path/to/mysql.sock” line in your > database.yml file. E.g. > > development: > adapter: mysql > database: db\_development > username: ruby > password: ruby > host: localhost > socket: /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock ---
**Author:** ![virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ed8c4c/32.png) [@virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/virtual)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interacting-with-a-mysql-database/73388/4 "2006-10-29T20:33:32Z")
Virgil Tual wrote: > Sorry, might help if I add the error messgae: > > Mysql::Error in BlogController#index > > Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/tmp/mysql.sock’ (2) > > RAILS\_ROOT: /Users/chris/Ruby/Blog/public/…/config/… i had the same problem i don’t know why but the only socet file i found on my mac was mysql-vcw.sock so i just changed my database yml to include socket: /tmp/mysql-vcw.sock ---
**Author:** ![virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ed8c4c/32.png) [@virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/virtual)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interacting-with-a-mysql-database/73388/5 "2006-10-24T20:20:10Z")
Sorry, might help if I add the error messgae: Mysql::Error in BlogController#index Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/tmp/mysql.sock’ (2) RAILS\_ROOT: /Users/chris/Ruby/Blog/public/…/config/… ---
**Author:** ![virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ed8c4c/32.png) [@virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/virtual)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interacting-with-a-mysql-database/73388/6 "2006-11-07T10:47:25Z")
aaron wrote: > i don’t know why but the only socet file i found on my mac was > mysql-vcw.sock > > so i just changed my database yml to include > > socket: /tmp/mysql-vcw.sock > > – > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). as written in original post he is running MAMP and MAMP will only be in one location: /Application/MAMP so the socks file also must be there. in my case it is under /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql. so I added the following line to database.yml and it woks: socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock hope this helps Fritzek ---
**Author:** ![virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/ed8c4c/32.png) [@virtual](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/virtual)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/interacting-with-a-mysql-database/73388/7 "2006-11-07T10:47:33Z")
aaron wrote: > i don’t know why but the only socet file i found on my mac was > mysql-vcw.sock > > so i just changed my database yml to include > > socket: /tmp/mysql-vcw.sock > > – > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). as written in original post he is running MAMP and MAMP will only be in one location: /Application/MAMP so the socks file also must be there. in my case it is under /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql. so I added the following line to database.yml and it woks: socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock hope this helps Fritzek