XAMPP Errors on Mac OS X Mojave

Question

I am running MacOS Mojave 10.14 with XAMPP 7.2.5

1. Earlier today, I tried to start up XAMPP after a crash/restart. XAMPP Manager was unable to start the MYSQL Server. Apache did start correctly.

2. Figuring there was a potential corruption, I used my Time Machine to restore my XAMPP folder (to a 36-hour old file) in Applications.

3. Now when I try to run XAMPP Manager, I get a "Cannot find any readable ctl script" error message.

4. I've tried to run MYSQL Server directly from CLI. I receive the following message:

./mysql.server: line 200: my_print_defaults: command not found Starting MariaDB ERROR! Couldn't find MariaDB server (/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/bin/mysqld_safe)

Any thoughts on how to resolve?

Answer 1

The issue has to do with a quirk with Time Machine - it does not completely regenerate all recorded folders/files. A bit of a pain.

I was able to run XAMPP from the command line:

-> cd /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles -> sudo ./xampp start

To check on MYSQL status: -> mysql status -u [username] -p [password]

Issue resolved

Answer 2

I spend a day on this and the solution in my case was:

• Uninstall XAMPP
• Delete all files except my databases folders from ⁨Applications/XAMPP⁩/xamppfiles/var⁩/mysql (there was some .err and log files if I remember well)
• Reinstall XAMPP
• Reconfigure it. If you use different user than root to access your databases you need to recreate it.

Answer 3

I got the "Cannot find any readable ctl script" error after a Time Machine restoration, too. I'm on 10.12.6 and XAMPP 5.6.

You are correct that it appears to be a TM issue, but I was able to resolve it by entering TM and specifically selecting the directories in XAMPP/xamppfiles/ that TM would not copy over by just selecting XAMPP/xamppfiles/. (In your case, you would not want to copy over /var/mysql, assuming you want to keep your data.)

Relief. There's nothing worse than realizing your trusty backup is not so trusty.