Python MySQLdb - Error 1045: Access denied for user

Question

I have a python code that goes like

import MySQLdb
import sys

try:
    con = MySQLdb.connect(host = 'localhost',user = 'crawler',passwd = 'crawler', db = 'real_estate_analytics')

    #... rest of code ...

except MySQLdb.Error, e:

    print "Error %d: %s" % (e.args[0],e.args[1])
    sys.exit(1)

The problem is that I'm getting the following error:

Error 1045: Access denied for user 'crawler'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

If I mysql on the terminal mysql -u crawler -pcrawler I can access the databases with no problem.

mysql> show databases;
+-----------------------+
| Database              |
+-----------------------+
| information_schema    |
| AL                    |
| cloversoup            |
| codebar               |
| mysql                 |
| performance_schema    |
| real_estate_analytics |
| teste                 |
+-----------------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

I have also deleted the anonymous user to avoid collisions. My users are

mysql> select user,host from mysql.user;
+---------+-----------+
| user    | host      |
+---------+-----------+
| root    | %         |
| crawler | localhost |
| root    | localhost |
+---------+-----------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

I have given all grants to crawler (and flushed privileges), so that should not be the problem:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO crawler@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'crawler' WITH GRANT OPTION;

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

as a matter of fact:

mysql> show grants;
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for crawler@localhost                                                                                                              |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'crawler'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD '*A594DECC46D378FDA13D7843740CBF4985E6969B' WITH GRANT OPTION |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

I have also tried to connect using the root user, by doing

con = MySQLdb.connect(host = 'localhost',user = 'root',passwd = 'my_root_password', db = 'real_estate_analytics')

but it doesn't work either (same error).

This thing is driving me crazy. Does anyone have an insight on what the problem could be?

OBS: I know there are similar questions on SO, but I've read them all and it didn't solve my problem. That's why I'm posting it here

Answer 1

'localhost' is and has always been special with MySQL. In your case, you grant crawler@localhost some privileges and this would mean 'the user crawler connecting through UNIX socket'. And, I'm pretty sure the MySQL server is configured with --skip-networking.

This can be fixed by being explicit. Using the unix_socket connection argument of your database driver, it would force the use of the UNIX socket. (Shamelessly linking to MySQL Connector/Python docs, as I'm the maintainer of that driver).