So this is more of a theoretical question (will be put into practice if this is possible).

I'm working with Plesk and a Virtual Private Server. They have the option to do a re-install (in case things get too broken or what have you). I'd like to be able to access the old database (it's called psa and would be located in /old/var/lib/mysql/psa) via the mysql command to get data from there.

Is it possible to do this? I was thinking of using a socket, but since the mysql service would be started from the new installation, would the old installation even have a socket?

I *do not* want to copy the database over to the new folder for several reasons. The first is that it's an InnoDB and I think I'd have to also copy over the ibdata stuff. More importantly, there is a fresh copy of the psa database that would be created and I DO NOT want to overwrite this.

Please let me know if anyone has any ideas.

Thank you!

Depends what you need, but start with pointing the mysql.conf at the old DB and extracting what you need to a flat file.
Then point stop MySQL, point the conf file at new DB and away you go.
That assumes it's a one off operation at re-install.
If you want continuous access, then mysqldump the old DB, edit the file (its just text) to have a new schema name eg old_whatever, then re-import into the new DB.

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Well, more than likely, I will have to generate a bash script that will execute Plesk code to re-add all the information, but that is not really a problem. Just for clarification, I would be modifying the datadir variable, correct? Additionally, this would require me to login using the information from the old installation as well, right? (I'm assuming so, since it will be referencing the older mysql users table, but just want to clarify).

Thank you!