I'm trying to reset my MySQL password in Terminal (OSX user) and am feeling my way through the process, as I know very little Unix. The guide I'm using suggests the following command as the final step:

shell> mysqld_safe --init-file=~/mysql-init &

to which Terminal responds (when I do it) with:
[1] xxxx
thomas-computer:~ root# -sh: shell: command not found

or something to that effect. substitue some numbers for the x (typically 1300-1500)

The method can be seen here:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...rmissions.html

I've created the password file in the root directory, and have found the file I believe to be the correct .pid

What am I doing wrong? Can someone pleeease guide me through this?

I"m guessing somewhat - but I think the console is trying to use sh.

Like bash, and ksh, sh is a shell - that means it should be an executable named "sh"
that lives in /usr/bin

On some linux systems sh is a link (a kind of file that points to another file)

When you are at the command line in unix, post the output of these commands:

which sh
echo $PATH
ls  -l /usr/bin/sh

All of the commands I entered were preceded by:
thomas-computer:~ root#

which sh
yielded
/bin/sh

echo $PATH
yielded
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

and

ls -l /usr/bin/sh
yielded
ls: /usr/bin/sh: No such file or directory

Then for some reason your PATH is not finding the mysqld_safe part of the command.

try

./mysqld_safe --init-file=~/mysql-init &

This is killing me. I've been trying different methods for three days now, and still no luck. Part of the problem may be that the previous command has never been successful either:

shell> kill `cat /mysql-data-directory/host_name.pid`

because this hasn't worked (you can see it in the link from my original post) I've shut off the server using my preferences pane in OSX. In any case,

shell> ./mysqld_safe --init-file=~/mysql-init &

hasn't worked for me, unfortunately. I get the same old "-sh: shell: command not found" error.

thomas-computer:~ root# -sh: shell: command not found

My interpretation is that sh could not find some program called "shell".

Can someone please guide me through the last few steps once more? I'm pretty sure I know the .pid file location, and I've created the text file the solution calls for. I simply can't get the final two steps to work... Can a Unix Guru please guide me through these final two steps? I'm running Mac OS 10.4 with the latest stable MySQL.