This is what I'm doing:
mysql --host=localhost --port=9999 mysql -u root -p --execute="show tables;"
The command works (connecting to port 3306) no matter what I provide in --port argument. I have two mysql servers running on one machine, and want to connect to the second one by explicitly providing its port number. What's going on? Why does mysql ignore this parameter?
Only connection options that are relevant to the selected transport protocol are used or checked. Other connection options are ignored. For example, with --host=localhost on Unix, the client attempts to connect to the local server using a Unix socket file, even if a --port or -P option is given to specify a TCP/IP port number.
To ensure that the client makes a TCP/IP connection to the local server, use --host or -h to specify a host name value of 127.0.0.1 (instead of localhost), or the IP address or name of the local server. You can also specify the transport protocol explicitly, even for localhost, by using the --protocol=TCP option. Examples:
mysql --host=127.0.0.1
mysql --protocol=TCP
