Mysql ERROR 2002 (HY000) Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket

You may face this error while restarting MySQL. Below are some fix for the same.

    [root@server:～ ] $ service mysqld start

    Starting MySQL... ERROR! The server quit without updating PID file

This error can be de to different reasons.

1. Check if there is any running MySQL process by using the following commands and kill all and restart.

    ps aux | grep mysql

If you are able to see any mysql process like below, just kill that process.

    root@server [~]# ps aux | grep mysql

    root 1140 0.0 0.0 4140 676 pts/0 D+ 22:34 0:00 grep mysql

    root 2987 0.0 0.0 4736 1288 ? S Sep27 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe

Now kill it.

    kill -9 2987

Make sure that there is no mysql process running at this point. Restart MySQL.

    service mysqld restart

2. If the above fix is not working, now we can try some more. It can be due to some conflicting entries in my.cnf

Try moving the mysql config file /etc/my.cnf file and restart mysql.

    mv /etc/my.cnf /etc/my.cnf.backup

Restart mysql.

    service mysqld restart

3. If none of the above is working, try to move the log file named “ib_logfile” in “/var/lib/mysql” and restart mysql. Sometimes mysql will fail because it face difficulty updating the log file.

    mv /var/lib/mysql/ib_logfile* /root/

Restart and see the results.

    service mysqld restart

You can also remove ib_logfile as it will be created automatically after mysql restart.

Hope this helps.