title: MySQL server startup error 'The server quit without updating PID file'
body: <p>On <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Snow_Leopard" rel="noreferrer">Mac OS X v10.6</a> (Snow Leopard), starting MySQL gives the following error:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>The server quit without updating PID file</p>
  </blockquote>
  <h3>File <em>my.cnf</em></h3>
  <pre class="lang-none prettyprint-override"><code>[mysqld]
  port            = 3306
  
  socket          = /tmp/mysql.sock
  
  skip-external-locking
  
  key_buffer_size = 16K
  
  pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
  
  [mysqld_safe]
  
  log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log
  
  pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
  </code></pre>