Step 0 - Install homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager that simplifies all database installs and management on a Mac.

=> Learn more on how to install Homebrew <=

Step 1 - Install MySQL

Whenever I'm building a Rails app on Windows Azure or AWS I find myself MySQL

# This will precisely install MySQL version 5.6
brew install mysql56

brew services start mysql56

Step 2 - Install Postgres

Whenever I'm building a Ruby on Rails app for Heroku or Openshift, Postgres is my DB.

brew install postgres

At some point, you'll need to create a user so here's the simple command:

createuser -d -a -s -P postgres

Step 3 - Install MongoDB

Whenever I'm building an ExpressJS app, MongoDB is my DB of choice.

brew tap mongodb/brew
brew install mongodb-community
brew services start mongodb-community

Step 4 - Database management

Homebrew is great for downloading and installing packages but even better for managing local databases for development. The interface is also known as Homebrew Services.

=> Install Homebrew Services to manage your databases. <=

YOU'RE DONE!

Troubleshooting

MySQL Errors

If you see this error, it can either mean that there are permission issues or things that did not install correctly.

MySQL socket error

Learn to Read the Error Logs

I generally suggest we first look at the error logs and see if we can better understand the problem.

The error log can be found here:

nano /usr/local/var/mysql/[look for your username].err

Common MySQL Errors

I've seen a lot of errors in my lifetime, and when it comes to MySQL, here are a few more common ones.

Last Resort

If you can't make sense of the error log, then one option is to uninstall MySQL and re-install everything.

Uninstall MySQL

 brew uninstall mysql

 # Clean things up
 brew cleanup --force

 # Remove any associated files or folders
 launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist

 # Remove any plists that might be lingering around
 rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist

 # Remove the MySQL folder with recursion and force
 sudo rm -rf /usr/local/var/mysql

Reinstall MySQL

 brew install mysql

 # Check your installation
 ps aux | grep mysql 

 # Initialize the MySQl daemon 
 mysqld --initialize --explicit_defaults_for_timestamp

 # Start the MySQL server (don't use sudo)
 mysql.server start