How to configure mysql database connection with a different socket

Question

I have a Drupal 6 site that I ran for years before walking away about three years ago. I would like to resurrect the site in a more modern CMS and am first considering Drupal 8.

I run my site on a shared server where I have my own mysql socket. In Drupal 6, I connected to the database successfully in settings.php through the following syntax:

ini_set('mysqli.default_socket', '/path/to/my/mysql/socket');
ini_set('mysql.default_socket', '/path/to/my/mysql/socket');
$db_url = 'mysqli://dbuser:dbpass@localhost/dbname';

Looking at Drupal 8's settings.php it's a completely different syntax, and I am stumped on how to configure it correctly either there or on the Database configuration screen during install.php. Googling things like "drupal 8 mysql socket" brings up old articles that aren't relevant anymore.

PHP 7.0 is provided and I don't have write access to the ini, so I can't override the socket there.

I have confirmed that the database is running with this command:

mysqladmin --socket=/path/to/my/mysql/socket --user=dbuser -p status

Any help would be greatly appreciated on how to get the database setup in Drupal 8, thank you.

Edit: from Clive's suggestion I added the ini_set() lines above to Drupal 8's settings.php to no avail. I'm assuming it's user error at this point so I'm still trying things.

Answer 1

According to this Drupal issue, setting the socket in the UI is just not possible right now: (at least in 8.6.10)

https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/793200

I also could not figure out how to set the socket in sites/default/settings.php.

I had to resort to hardcoding my socket in this file:

core/lib/Drupal/Core/Database/Driver/mysql/Connection.php

This block of code:

    // The DSN should use either a socket or a host/port.
    if (isset($connection_options['unix_socket'])) {
      $dsn = 'mysql:unix_socket=' . $connection_options['unix_socket'];
    }
    else {
      // Default to TCP connection on port 3306.
      $dsn = 'mysql:host=' . $connection_options['host'] . ';port=' . (empty($connection_options['port']) ? 3306 : $connection_options['port']);
    }

I could not find any way to set "unix_socket" value on $connection_options, so I resorted to hardcoding it before this block like:

$connection_options['unix_socket'] = '/path/to/my/mysql/socket';