DBD mysql can't detect mysql installation

[nitin1704]

I installed DWIMPerl on my Windows 64bit machine, and it seems that it came pre-installed with DBI and DBD::mysql. Then I went on to install MySQL Server 5.5. Then using a Perl script, I tried to list all the drivers and data sources. But it doesn't show the mysql databases:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use DBI;

print "Available DBI Drivers and Data Sources:\n\n";
my @drivers = DBI->available_drivers('quiet');
my @sources;

foreach my $driver (@drivers) {
    print "$driver\n";
    @sources = eval { DBI->data_sources($driver) };
    if($@) {
        print "\tError: ",substr($@,0,60),"\n";
    } elsif (@sources) {
        foreach(@sources) {
            print "\t$_\n";
        }
    } else {
        print "\tNo known data sources\n";
    }
}

The script generated this output:

Available DBI Drivers and Data Sources:

ADO
        No known data sources
DBM
        DBI:DBM:f_dir=.
ExampleP
        dbi:ExampleP:dir=.
File
        DBI:File:f_dir=.
Gofer
        No known data sources
ODBC
        dbi:ODBC:dBASE Files
        dbi:ODBC:Excel Files
        dbi:ODBC:MS Access Database
Pg
        No known data sources
Proxy
        Error: install_driver(Proxy) failed: Can't locate RPC/PlClient
+.pm i
SQLite
        No known data sources
Sponge
        No known data sources
mysql
        No known data sources
Press any key to continue . . .

And the  mysql> show databases; on the same machine shows this:

mysql> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
| test               |
+--------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

[moritz]

That's OK. You can connect to your mysql database with DBI->connect(...) even though your databases aren't shown as "known data sources".

The background is that the mysql driver doesn't know which database to connect to (there could be multiple running on your machine, or none at all, and access happens over the network), and which username and password to use.

You can also see that only file-based DBD modules list known data sources, because all the others have the same problems as the mysql driver.

[mje]

You can also see that only file-based DBD modules list known data sources, because all the others have the same problems as the mysql driver.

That is not strictly true. Although the ODBC ones listed are file based in this example the real reason they are listed is because DBD::ODBC's datasources method can query the ODBC Driver Manager for the data sources. If the OP had had a data source for MS SQL Server or Oracle they would have been listed as well.

[nitin1704]

Thanks Moritz. I tried querying the database and it works. BTW, is Access really a file based DB?

[moritz]

BTW, is Access really a file based DB?

Yes.