Troubleshooting "Connection Refused" Error when Connecting to MySQL with PyMySQL

When attempting to establish a connection to MySQL on localhost using PyMySQL, some users encounter the error "socket: [Errno 111] Connection refused." This can be frustrating, especially when MySQL is known to be running.

To understand the cause of this issue, let's examine two potential reasons:

1. Incorrect socket path: PyMySQL may be attempting to connect to a different socket location than where MySQL is listening. To rectify this, run the command mysqladmin variables | grep socket to determine the socket's location. Then, set the unix_socket parameter when connecting, as follows:

pymysql.connect(db='base', user='root', passwd='pwd', unix_socket="/tmp/mysql.sock")

2. Mismatched port: MySQL may be listening on a port other than the default 3306. Verify this by running mysqladmin variables | grep port. If necessary, specify the correct port when connecting:

pymysql.connect(db='base', user='root', passwd='pwd', host='localhost', port=XXXX)

By addressing one of these potential causes, you should be able to successfully establish a connection to MySQL on localhost using PyMySQL.