Connect to MySQL TCP instead of a socket

Method 1:

Do not use localhost - use 127.0.0.1 instead. Many clients have an internal alias that makes them connect to the socket if you specify localhost as target.

Method 2:

Specify that you want to use TCP and not a socket (mysql --protocol tcp)

You can also easily make that the default my editing your my.cnf so it has this ([client] means any client:

[client]

protocol=tcp