For example the config.version collection in sharding config is not accessible from the shell since the version function is returned.

We should check if the collection exists before returning the function:

> use config
switched to db config
> db["version"].find()
Wed Mar 16 08:23:22 TypeError: db.version.find is not a function (shell):1
> db["version"]
function ()

{ return this.serverBuildInfo().version; } If there is a collection we should use that, and print a warning message about the naming conflict. $ mongoexport -d config -c version connected to: 127.0.0.1:37017 { "_id" : 1, "version" : 3 }

exported 1 records