Who Moved My Socket?
January 3rd, 2007Apple, IT, Web Development, WordPress
While gearing up to get the latest version of Stuntbox out the door I set up a new localhost testing environment on my MacBook. That included fresh installs of MySQL and WordPress (using the already-baked-into-OS-X versions of Apache and PHP). Nothing unusual there.
Apparently it had been a little while since I had actively used the combination though, because somebody went and made some changes while I had my back turned.
Cue Breaking Glass
If you’ve ever set up PHP/MySQL on OS X you know it’s no big deal. Uncomment a couple of lines in Apache’s http.conf file, then download a fresh MySQL install and follow the relatively straightforward instructions. (You always remember to secure your initial user accounts, right?) If you’re used to this sort of dance the whole thing will take you all of a half hour, if that. So I wasn’t paying too much attention post-install when I started throwing other applications into the mix. Phooey on me for not testing the PHP/MySQL connection first though because WordPress immediately coughed up the following hairball:
Error establishing a database connection. This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at localhost. This could mean your host’s database server is down.
Well my wp-config.php was fine, and MySQL was very much up and running, so that left the database connection. After some trial and error with Google I came across a tech note on Apple’s support site called Mac OS X Server 10.4.4: Improvements to Apache/PHP/MySQL. Turns out that, as of OS X 10.4.4, the default socket location for PHP and MySQL has been moved. Fortunately an easy fix is detailed under the second section of the note. Basically it comes down to editing the socket location in your php.ini file (or creating one if it doesn’t exist yet).
I find it more than a little odd that I had to dig up a note about the server version of the OS to uncover an explanation from Apple about this. That’s important because, while there are other fixes out there, this is the only that has any hope of explaining why the change was made.
David Sleight is a web designer living and working in New York City, and the Deputy Creative Director of BusinessWeek.com
Recent Posts
- InterludeTransients, of a kind.
- Soul TrainEverywhere you want to be.
- A Style of LookingEverything new is not.
- BusinessLinkedLess one degree of separation.
- Wounded LandsNear hits, near misses.
- Some Shall PassContent car-tellin' it.
E-mail address will not be displayed. You can use <a href>, <blockquote>, <code>, <em> and <strong> tags in your comment. Line breaks are automatically converted.