CakePHP: Can't access MySQL database - php

Question

I'm new to CakePHP and am just running through the configuration process, but am stumped why Cake can't access my MySQL database. The Cake info page says my tmp directory is writable, the FileEngine is being used for caching (don't know what this means), and my database configuration file is present, but that CakePHP cannot connect to the database.
Here are my setup details:
PHP 5.3 (pre-installed on Snow Leopard)
MySQL 5.1.40 64-bit
CakePHP 1.2.4.8284
Here are the steps I went through:
Created a MySQL schema called cake_blog
Created a MySQL user called cake_blog_user
Granted cake_blog_user the appropriate permissions on cake_blog#localhost and cake_blog#%
Copied the database.php.default file to database.php and edited the database connection details as appropriate
Here is the relevant configuration data from database.php:
var $default = array(
'driver' => 'mysql',
'persistent' => false,
'host' => 'localhost',
'login' => 'cake_blog_user',
'password' => 'cake_blog_password',
'database' => 'cake_blog',
'prefix' => '',
);
Am I missing something here? I should also mention that if I insert an echo mysql_error(); into the /cake/libs/view/pages/home.ctp file right before it tests the database connection, the error displayed is "No such file or directory." I have no idea what file or directory it's talking about.
Thanks!

Answer 1

What usually bites me in it's that MySQL thinks of 'localhost' as 'connect thru the unix socket' and '127.0.0.1' 'connect thru TCP port'. With things like XAMPP (at least on mac) the unix socket file isn't there. Just use 127.0.0.1 instead.
var $default = array(
'driver' => 'mysql',
'persistent' => false,
'host' => '127.0.0.1',
'login' => 'cake_blog_user',
'password' => 'cake_blog_password',
'database' => 'cake_blog',
'prefix' => '',
);
Should work all the time.

Answer 2

If it is the socket, just edit /etc/php.ini to reflect the following
pdo_mysql.default_socket=/tmp/mysql.sock
and
mysql.default_socket = /tmp/mysql.sock

Answer 3

I believe you can also do the following
<?php
public $default = array(
'driver' => 'mysql',
'persistent' => false,
'host' => 'localhost',
'login' => 'cake_blog_user',
'password' => 'cake_blog_password',
'database' => 'cake_blog',
'prefix' => '',
'port' => '/tmp/mysql.sock',
)
?>
doing this might mean you need to edit the database.php file when you go live on the production server.

Answer 4

Thanks everyone for pointing me in the right direction. The mysql.sock file has been moved to /tmp/mysql.sock instead of its default location at /var/mysql/mysql.sock. Editing the php.ini file to reflect this has fixed the problem.

Answer 5

check your phpinfo and use the socket listed. that worked for me.

Answer 6

On Ubuntu, if you installed both 7.0 and 5.6 versions of PHP this wont work.
Youll need to switch if you have both versions:
Look first if is 7.0 version: the command is php -v.
Next do
sudo a2dismod php7.0
sudo a2enmod php5.6
sudo service apache2 restart