Cannot find mySQL -- get "command not found" error when trying to access mySQL from command line

Question

I have previously installed, connected and uploaded to a WordPress MySQL database via SSH no problem. The people who run my server made a few configuration changes, and now I get a "bash: mysql: command not found" error when I try to log into MySQL via the command line on the same server to access the same database.

I am relatively new to all of this, so I am really not sure what to do. When I run "which mysql" I get a message that says there is no MySQL executable in the /usr/bin directories. I can verify that MySQL is running between the fact that my site is still live and functioning and when I ran a command to test MySQL, I got a message that said "MySQL works!"

I find MySQL files in several directories, but I'm not really sure what I am looking for and how I connect to it when I do find it. I am also not sure if this is user error, or if somehow someone moved or hid MySQL from me -- likely user error??

Answer 1

A MySQL server is not a MySQL client.

Check if MySQL is running by executing this command:

ps aux | grep mysql | grep -v grep

And install the MySQL client:

sudo apt-get install mysql-client # Or your distribution command

Answer 2

If you have MySQL server up and running on your server, it does not mean you have a MySQL client installed on this server.

Try

ls -l /usr/bin/mysql*

Do you see MySQL binaries exactly present on system?

One more problem: Linux has very strange behaviour when you run binaries for another architecture.

For example, if you run a 32-bit executable on 64-bit system you will get an error message like "command or file not found", even if the binaries are actually present!

Answer 3

Now mysql-client has changed to default-mysql-client.

Hence the command:

sudo apt-get install default-mysql-client