Quick Guide: Testing MySQL Connection Without the MySQL CLI

If you don't have the MySQL client installed but you have access to the command line, you can use other tools to test the MySQL connection. Here are a few methods:

Using telnet:
If you know the server's IP and port (default is 3306 for MySQL), you can try to establish a connection using telnet.

telnet [server_ip] [port]

For example:

telnet 127.0.0.1 3306

If you're connected, you'll see some output from MySQL. If not, you'll get a connection error.

Using netcat (nc):
Similar to telnet, you can use netcat to check the connection.

nc -zv [server_ip] [port]

For example:

nc -zv 127.0.0.1 3306

Using curl:
This won't establish a proper MySQL connection, but it can tell you if the port is open and listening.

curl -v telnet://[server_ip]:[port]

For example:

curl -v telnet://127.0.0.1:3306

Using PHP:
If you have PHP installed, you can use it to test the MySQL connection. Create a file named test_mysql.php with the following content:

<?php
$servername = "your_server_name";
$username = "your_username";
$password = "your_password";
$dbname = "your_dbname"; // Optional

// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
} 
echo "Connected successfully";
?>

Run the script using:

php test_mysql.php

Using Python:
If you have Python and the mysql-connector-python package installed, you can use it to test the MySQL connection. Here's a simple script:

import mysql.connector

try:
    connection = mysql.connector.connect(
        host='your_server_name',
        user='your_username',
        password='your_password',
        database='your_dbname'  # Optional
    )
    if connection.is_connected():
        print('Connected to MySQL database')
    connection.close()
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")

Remember to replace placeholders like your_server_name, your_username, etc., with your actual MySQL credentials.