Also this is an old post, I answer it because it could help somebody with the same problem.
I'm running mySQL on Mac using MAMP. I've got the same problem when I try to use mysql.
It seems that MAMP defines by default the socket for my sql at /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock (you can check that with a ps -A command where you find the text "--socket=/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock").
A solution to fix that is to create a symbolic link:
after stopping it it will now not start.
i have the following error:
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (61)
Also this is an old post, I answer it because it could help somebody with the same problem.
I'm running mySQL on Mac using MAMP. I've got the same problem when I try to use mysql.
It seems that MAMP defines by default the socket for my sql at /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock (you can check that with a ps -A command where you find the text "--socket=/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock").
A solution to fix that is to create a symbolic link:
ln -s /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock /tmp/mysql.sock
It works find for me like that!