def checkMySQL():
  cmd = ('mysql --user=%s --password=%s -e "select 1+1;" > /dev/null')% (user, password)
  process = Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT, close_fds=True)
  process.wait()
  state = process.poll()

  if state > 0:
    print "MySQL not running. Exiting status(1)"
    sys.exit(1)

  else:
    print "continue..."