I'm finally going to try learning MySQL, and have installed a MySQL server on my computer (Windows with Apache and PHP). After some confusion I found that in order to succeed with PHP mysql_connect() I needed the username "root" and the MySQL root password created during the installation. Related questions:
- Is a root password necessary or useful on an offline testing server? Is it practical to make a new user account (with passwords?) in addition to root for each site I'm testing offline?
- Any other security precautions? For example there's a "skip-networking" directive, which stops MySQL from listening on a TCP/IP port.
- In phpinfo.php the "mysql.default_user" and "mysql.default_password" directives are listed. What are they used for? Apparently they're not the same as the MySQL root and password.
- What is http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.sql.safe-mode used for? When enabled mysql_connect() fails, apparently because it makes PHP ignore my root password. So when do you use safe mode --when passwords are not used (sounds contradictory)?
- Anything else to think of, so that my offline configurations won't differ too much from what online webhosts look like? I don't have any web host offering MySQL, so I can't check.