Cannot log in MySQL (in a Docker container)

Question

I have MySQL installed in a Docker container and I'm tying to log in and it just won't accept my credentials.

I'm careful to copy paste my password.

I retyped everything fearing some hidden character somewhere... no luck.

mysql> use mysql;
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Database changed
mysql> grant all privileges on db_thalasoft.* to thalasoft@'%' identified by 'XXX';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> quit;
Bye
root@89b59e4faab5:/usr/bin/mysql/install# bin/mysql -u thalasoft -p
Enter password: 
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'thalasoft'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

The version is a self built one from the mysql-5.6.30.tar.gz archive.

Answer 1

TLDR : wild card % does not include special host localhost .

You need to create a login for the special host localhost to indicate a login from the local host (from the MySQL server point of view). The % is a wild card for IP addresses in case you are using an IP to connect to the host (or force the access via TCP with the --protocol=tcp option). So when you connect via local sockets (which will be used when you don't provide a host in the command line) you must have a user which is configured for the localhost host. See 6.2.3 Specifying Account Names :

A host value can be a host name or an IP address (IPv4 or IPv6). The name 'localhost' indicates the local host. The IP address '127.0.0.1' indicates the IPv4 loopback interface. The IP address '::1' indicates the IPv6 loopback interface.