So I made the rookie mistake of putting a dash in the name of my MySQL database (ie My-Database ). After upgrading to Laravel 4.2, none of my repos worked. Here’s what I discovered:

1. Don’t put a dash in your db name…use an underscore. Duh.

2. If you have a dash in the name, and are getting errors as I did, the error is being thrown from: Illuminate\Database\Connectors\MySqlConnector line 26 using the "connect" method. This method picks up (verbatim) the database name you specified in the app/config/database.php file.

3. In order to bypass the error, single quotes (tilde key) must be added to the db name .

4. Adding the quotes to the db name within the app/config/database.php file does not work.

5. The following snippet within the Illuminate\Database\Connectors\MySqlConnector "connect" method solved the problem:

Original (starting at line 22):

if (isset($config['unix_socket']))

{

    $connection->exec("use {$config['database']};");

}

Modified:

if (isset($config['unix_socket']))

{

    $dbName = $config['database'];

    if(strpos($dbName, '-')) // if the db name contains a dash
    {
   
        $config['database'] = '`'.$dbName.'`'; //add single quotes to db name

    }
 
    $connection->exec("use {$config['database']};"); 

}

If anyone has a tidier way of approaching this, I would love the feedback.

Thanks! Chris