okies well i've figured out the answer to functional (possibly even correct) mysql backup and restore on debian potato. i know i'm not the only person on this list who needs to know this so i'm posting up what works for me. to create the backup: #mysqldump -c -p DBNAME > DBNAME.sql to retreive the database #mysqladmin -p create DBNAME #mysql -p DBNAME < DBNAME.sql Hope this helps. John