No mysql database in mysql server - how do I give users permissions?
The problem here is that I am invoking mysql as user danielsank, but that user does not have privileges to make new tables, nor to see the mysql database!

The issue becomes clear by invoking mysql as root

$ mysql -u root

mysql&gt; SHOW DATABASES;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
+--------------------+


Now we can see the mysql database, and we can check it for user information

mysql&gt; USE DATABASE mysql;
mysql&gt; SELECT User, Host, Password FROM user;
+------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+
| User             | Host                    | Password                    |
+------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+
| root             | localhost               |                             |
| root             | &lt;my machine name&gt;       |                             |
| root             | 127.0.0.1               |                             |
| root             | ::1                     |                             |
| debian-sys-maint | localhost               | *&lt;a really long string&gt;     |
| danielsank       | localhost               |                             |
+------------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+


We can create the new database

mysql&gt; CREATE DATABASE purchases;


and grant permissions to danielsank

mysql&gt; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON purchases . * TO 'danielsank'@'localhost';