How to deal with this ERROR (1049, "Unknown database '/users/ohyunjun/work/astral/mysql'")

Question

In the Django settings.py, I set databases option this way

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'mysql'),
        'USER': 'root',
        'PASSWORD': 'sp153426',
        'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
        'PORT': '3306',
    }
}

And I executed this command

python manage.py syncdb

But failed with this error

  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 399, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 392, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 242, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **options.__dict__)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 285, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 415, in handle
    return self.handle_noargs(**options)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 57, in handle_noargs
    cursor = connection.cursor()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/__init__.py", line 160, in cursor
    cursor = self.make_debug_cursor(self._cursor())
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/__init__.py", line 132, in _cursor
    self.ensure_connection()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/__init__.py", line 127, in ensure_connection
    self.connect()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 99, in __exit__
    six.reraise(dj_exc_type, dj_exc_value, traceback)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/__init__.py", line 127, in ensure_connection
    self.connect()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/__init__.py", line 115, in connect
    self.connection = self.get_new_connection(conn_params)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 435, in get_new_connection
    conn = Database.connect(**conn_params)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.4b4-py2.7-macosx-10.6-intel.egg/MySQLdb/__init__.py", line 81, in Connect
    return Connection(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/MySQL_python-1.2.4b4-py2.7-macosx-10.6-intel.egg/MySQLdb/connections.py", line 187, in __init__
    super(Connection, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs2)
django.db.utils.OperationalError: (1049, "Unknown database '/users/ohyunjun/work/astral/mysql'")

Answer 1

'NAME' is the name of your database. With MySQL, you need to manually create your database too. Let's say, if you run:

$ mysql -u root -p

mysql> CREATE DATABASE mydb;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.02 sec)

your configuration should be:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': 'mydb',
        'USER': 'root',
        'PASSWORD': 'sp153426',
        'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
        'PORT': '3306',
    }
}