PHP Tutorial - Sanity Check

Make sure MySQL is running
prompt:~> mysqlshow

+-----------+
 | Databases |
+-----------+
 | mysql        |
 | test           |
+-----------+

Or with the latest PHP
<? echo mysql_stat() ?>
Output:
Uptime: 6717 Threads: 1 Questions: 1 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 6 Flush tables: 1
Open tables: 0 Queries per second avg: 0.000