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

Question

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.

Ensure that your mysql service is running

service mysqld start

Then, try the one of the following following:

(if you have not set password for mysql)

mysql -u root

if you have set password already

mysql -u root -p

If your file my.cnf (usually in the etc folder) is correctly configured with

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

you can check if mysql is running with the following command:

mysqladmin -u root -p status

try changing your permission to mysql folder. If you are working locally, you can try:

sudo chmod -R 777 /var/lib/mysql/

that solved it for me

The MySQL server is not running, or that is not the location of its socket file (check my.cnf).

Most likely mysql.sock does not exist in /var/lib/mysql/.

If you find the same file in another location then symlink it:

For ex: I have it in /data/mysql_datadir/mysql.sock

Switch user to mysql and execute as mentioned below:

su mysql

ln -s /data/mysql_datadir/mysql.sock /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

That solved my problem

If you are on a recent RHEL, you may need to start mariadb (an open source mysql db) instead of the mysql db:

yum remove mysql
yum -y install mariadb-server mariadb
service mariadb start

You should then be able to access mysql in the usual fashion:

mysql -u root -p

In my case I have moved socket file to another location inside /etc/my.cnf from /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock to /tmp/mysql.sock

Even after restarting the mysqld service, I still see the error message when I try to connect. ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)

The problem is with the way that the client is configured. Running diagnostics will actually show the correct socket path. eg ps aux | grep mysqld

Works:

mysql -uroot -p -h127.0.0.1
mysql -uroot -p --socket=/tmp/mysql.sock

Does not Work:

mysql -uroot -p
mysql -uroot -p -hlocalhost

You can fix this problem by adding the same socket line under [client] section inside mysql config.