Connect to Docker MySQL Container from Localhost without Docker Commands

You have a Docker container running a MySQL instance and want to connect to it from your local MacBook's command line, without using Docker commands. Here's how you can achieve this:

Using docker-compose up

Start the container with port mapping enabled:

docker-compose up

From your host, you can connect to the MySQL instance using:

mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -u root

Using docker-compose run

When using docker-compose run, you need to explicitly enable port mapping using the --service-ports option:

docker-compose run --service-ports db

Connect to the MySQL instance as before:

mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -u root

Additional Note

Remember to use 127.0.0.1 as the host address, instead of localhost, as the MySQL client by default tries to connect via a Unix socket when connecting to localhost.