Rails - Oct 2005 - OT: Accessing mysql database from socket versus hostname

I noticed when I updgraded to 0.14.1 that my database.yml has
references to the mysql socket path instead of the hostname.  Is there
an advantage to accessing the server through the socket instead of the
host?

Thanks,
Carl

Unix sockets should be lower overhead than a TCP connection, so there
is a possible performance gain (you don''t need to do any of the
checksuming, retransmit etc) .

If you can keep mysql off the network (your rails app and db  are on
the same box), someone couldn''t try to break into your database over
the network, so I guess there is some security benefit.

I think both of these are fairly negligible gains for any real world
Rails app, so there is probably no real difference.

On 10/19/05, Carl Youngblood
<carl-MJzSGySFh6ZUfOvSQQQpYw@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> I noticed when I updgraded to 0.14.1 that my database.yml has
> references to the mysql socket path instead of the hostname.  Is there
> an advantage to accessing the server through the socket instead of the
> host?
>
> Thanks,
> Carl
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

--
Daniel Hobe <hobe-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
After the darkness of her speech; I go bewildered in a mist of prophecies.

On 10/19/05, Daniel Hobe <hobe-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>
wrote:
> Unix sockets should be lower overhead than a TCP connection, so there
> is a possible performance gain (you don''t need to do any of the
> checksuming, retransmit etc) .
>
> If you can keep mysql off the network (your rails app and db  are on
> the same box), someone couldn''t try to break into your database
over
> the network, so I guess there is some security benefit.
>
> I think both of these are fairly negligible gains for any real world
> Rails app, so there is probably no real difference.
However mysql will always look for a socket if you supply your host as
"localhost", and will ignore any port settings; whereas setting
127.0.0.1  will use any ports you specify (I use a different port for
a tunneled DB connection).