Using Docker to Create a MySQL Server

When working on test code on my computer, I usually use the built-in PHP server (php -S), which works nicely. Every so often, I need access to MySQL and I use Docker to temporarily create a MySQL server for me. This is how I do it.

The magic command is:

$ docker run --name mysql \
  -e MYSQL_USER=rob -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=123456 -e MYSQL_DATABASE=bookshelf \
  -p 3306:3306 -d mysql/mysql-server:5.7

This creates a Docker container called mysql on port 3306. We pass three environment variables: MYSQL_USER, MYSQL_PASSWORD, and MYSQL_DATABASE, which are our credentials and the database name.

Client Access to the Database

If you have the MySQL command line client installed, you can access your database like this:

$ mysql --protocol=TCP -u rob -p123456 

We need to use TCP protocol as there's no socket in play here. If, like me, you're too lazy to type --protocol=TCP each time, then set it in your ~/.my.cnf file like this:

~/.my.cnf:

[client]
protocol=TCP

One of the easier ways to get a MySQL command line client on a Mac is to install MySQL WorkBench and add /Applications/MySQLWorkbench.app/Contents/MacOS to the path, as Homebrew seems to want to install the server, too.

Controlling the Container

Stop the container using docker stop mysql and restart it again with docker start mysql. When you're finished with it, you can delete it with docker rm mysql.

Restoring a Dump File

As these MySQL instances are temporary for me, I install a database schema using:

cat seed-mysql.sql | mysql --protocol=TCP -u rob -p123456 rob bookshelf

(Obviously, you'd use same credentials as you ran your container with!)

Fin

That's all there is to having a temporary MySQL install running locally for development.