Big Sur mySQL - php - apache simple low maintenance configuration needed

I tried it again and it worked perfectly. I only tested it in Big Sur. I installed in a VM with no other 3rd party software installed.

You can't uninstall apps, especially anything like this, by deleting files. You'll never find them all. Don't use any "clean up" or "app zappers" either. They will also not find all the files, and also delete system files that were not actually part of the installation.

The current 8.0 version of MySQL for the Mac includes and "Uninstall" button in the Preference Pane. That is the only way to uninstall it.

The most likely explanation is that your computer is jacked up in some other way. I suggest you backup the computer with Time Machine, erase the hard drive, and reinstall the operating system. If you want to restore from backup, you can restore only your user documents and user accounts. Do NOT restore any software or "other files". Manually reinstall those one by one.

pamela.parks wrote:

Short version of my questions: what is the way forward for hobbiest-learners who want to use the triad of apache-php-mySQL to do a bit of web development?

Have you seen this User Tip? Setting up a local web server on macOS 11 “Big Sur”

After not touching my setup for a couple years and many OS upgrades I have set about getting the pieces back up and running together. The php and apache took a bit of fiddling but they are working fine though the warning that php will not be a part of future OS is a little concerning.

There is more to that that I can't mention here...

Getting mySQL running has taken the better part of two days without succeeding.

In the User Tip above, there is a link to a really old User Tip for installing MySQL. I will update it after I finish this reply. But it looks like the current installer is almost fully functional. The only parts you need to add are:

alias mysql=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql

alias mysqladmin=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin

To your environment. Oracle seems to think Apple is still using bash, but this is close enough for Oracle I guess.

I suggest you delete /usr/local/mysql and reinstall using the latest version 8 installer. You will have to add those two aliases, or set your path - you don’t need both. Otherwise, there is nothing to do. The installer sets everything up correctly and starts the server.

I didn't that that on an M1. There is a decent chance that something like this, from Oracle, won't work on Apple Silicon.

The most likely cause of this problem is some previous attempt at installing MySQL (***cough***, ***cough***, homebrew, ***cough***) which left the configuration files in a bad state. Subsequent installations would probably honour your existing config files, whether they worked or not. Said config files may be in multiple locations. All of those locations will be hidden and hard to find.

pamela.parks wrote:

You should cough more often! ... The rat in the pile was homebrew.

Coughs aren't good these days. They were always euphemisms for "other words" anyway. 😄

So a quick test of a new a page that connected to a nice new db and the almighty root can do it. Now if I can just get the thing to work with a normal user... another day. Today I am so pleased with the progress. Thank you!

You have to do that inside MySQL itself. Permissions are tied to individual databases and tables, and based on user names and user locations. I checked the official MySQL documentation and it didn't say much about this. This tutorial from Digital Ocean is adequate: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-new-user-and-grant-permissions-in-mysql

I'm not necessarily recommending Digital Ocean. In fact, I found their MySQL services to be quite poor.