MySQL from OSX Terminal

Question

I seem to be missing something as all of the tutorials that show how to run MySQL from OSX's command line aren't working.

I can turn the MySQL Server status on and off via System preferences, but if I follow one of the tutorial that shows how to run from the command line using sudo mysqld_safe it returns the sudo: mysqld: command not found

I've also tried logging into MySQL using mysql -u root -p and I get bash: mysql: command not found

/usr/local/mysql/bin/ does exist I just feel like something wasn't installed properly on the client side. Any help figuring out how to access mysql from the terminal would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

/usr/local/mysql/bin is not in the default $PATH. $PATH is the list of directories that are searched when you try to use an executable without specifying a complete path.

You either need to use the full path (/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_executable_here) or add it to your $PATH:

export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin"

For macOS Mojave and earlier

You can add this line to a file called .profile in your home directory to execute it each time you create a new shell:

echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin"' >> ~/.profile
source ~/.profile
mysql -u USERNAME -p

For macOS Catalina and later

Starting with macOS Catalina, Mac devices use zsh as the default login shell and interactive shell and you have to update .zprofile file in your home directory.

echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/mysql/bin"' >> ~/.zprofile
source ~/.zprofile
mysql -u USERNAME -p

Answer 2

I had this kind of problem as well. I resolved the issues like:-

1. go to the directory cd /usr/local/mysql/bin/
2. put this command ./mysql -u root -p;
3. it will ask you password the root password you get at the time of installation. that way you will get your mysql connected to the database... hope that helps..