[fc_]

Recently, out of the blue, my installation of mysql suddenly stopped working. The daemon was dying with the error of

Code:
040512 04:32:11  mysqld started
040512  4:32:12  Can't start server : Bind on unix socket: Permission denied
040512  4:32:12  Do you already have another mysqld server running on socket: /tmp/mysql.sock ?
040512  4:32:12  Aborting

After backing up my data directory for mysql, and reinstalling mysql several times, the error persisted. Upon further investigation, the /tmp directory (where mysql keeps its lock file) had somehow become a standard directory, rather than a symbolic link to /private/tmp/

Deleting the offending tmp directory, and reestablishing the symbolic link, finally fixed the problem.

Anyway, just wanted to pass this on, in case this ever happens to you.

[ps... and no, mysqld wasn't already running, and there was no mysql.sock file in the hosed tmp directory, that's the first thing that I looked for]

[genevish]

I'd be interested to know why the tmp directory changed. Some other software you installed maybe?

[fc_]

Really not sure. Haven't installed any new software (aside from a recent security update, but even that was a while ago) that should have even touched the /tmp directory.