MAMP Pro and MySQL having Fatal error: Please read "Security" section of the manual to find out how to run mysqld as root
I have a temporary fix, until the developers release a fix. I am using MAMP Pro; I don't know if the interface is the same in non-Pro. The temp fix:
Open MAMP Pro. Stop servers if they are running. Open the MySQL template from the menu: File > Edit Template > MySQL (mysql.cnf) > 5.7.26
Scroll down or find [client]. Beneath [client] add the following line: user = root
Scroll down or find [mysqld]. Beneath [mysqld] add the following line: user = root
Start servers.
This worked for me. Hope it helps you.
I had the same problem after installing Catalina on my Mac. First I have tried solution of Les Brown. Did not completely work for me. I got another error:
[Note] Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
After some reading I saw a video on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKE1G4sinBM) which lets you add the keyword skip-grant-tables in the section mysqld of the MySql template of MAMP-PRO. That let mysql working, but is not the best idea to have forever in your template file. If your try to add the line, do not forget to remove it also!
Last but not least I got the hint of MAMP-Pro-support to make a symbolic link to the mysql.stock. So I executed in Terminal (the '$' is the prompt of terminal).
$ sudo ln -s /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock /tmp/mysql.sock
Password:...
$
Now everything is working fine.