title: How do I login as root on MySQL on OS X?
body: <p>I've just set up MySQL on my computer (OS X 10.7), and it seems to be working, judging by the "mysqld" in the activity monitor and the new icon in my System Preferences.</p>
  
  <p>However I'm having trouble doing anything with MySQL, as I need to login at least as the root user, but it doesn't let me.  So let's run through what I've been doing and what error messages I'm getting:</p>
  
  <p>Firstly, I start up MySQL via the "mysql" unix executable file.  This seems to work, as my entries are now preceded with</p>
  
  <pre><code> mysql&gt; 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Also, I can type</p>
  
  <pre><code> help;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and I get MySQL's help list.  So then I go to do something, like create a database:</p>
  
  <pre><code> CREATE DATABASE books;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but I get the following error:</p>
  
  <pre><code> ERROR 1044 (42000): Access denied for user ''@'localhost' to database 'books'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So then I figure I need to login, and that logging in as the root user should be enough.  I enter the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code> mysql -u root -p;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I get the 1064 error saying my syntax is wrong.  I've had a look around through a number of websites, and this never seems to be a problematic step.  Any clues on what's going wrong for me?</p>