Cannot find mysql.sock

Question

I just had to re-install mysql and I am having a problem starting it up. It cannot find the socket (mysql.sock). The problem is that neither can I. In my Mac OS X 10.4 terminal, I type: "locate mysql.sock", and I get back "/private/tmp/mysql.sock". It makes sense that the socket file exist in that location, but it actually does not.

So my question is two parts:

1) How can I find the socket file?

2) If locate is returning a false location, it must have some sort of memory and probably indexes. How can I refresh that index?

Thank you

Answer 1

I can't help with question #1, but to refresh locate's file database, run:

updatedb

Answer 2

The socket file should be created automatically when the MySQL daemon starts.

If it isn't found, most likely the directory which is supposed to contain it doesn't exist, or some other file system problem is preventing the socket from being created.

To find out where the file should be, use:

% mysqld --verbose --help | grep ^socket

Answer 3

It may be this