Index: common.scm
==================================================================
--- common.scm
+++ common.scm
@@ -46,11 +46,11 @@
 (define *test-meta-updated* (make-hash-table))
 (define *globalexitstatus*  0) ;; attempt to work around possible thread issues
 (define *passnum*           0) ;; when running track calls to run-tests or similar
 (define *write-frequency*   (make-hash-table)) ;; run-id => (vector (current-seconds) 0))
 (define *alt-log-file* #f)  ;; used by -log
-
+(define *db-sync-mutex* (make-mutex))
 
 ;; DATABASE
 (define *open-dbs* (vector #f (make-hash-table))) ;; megatestdb run-id-dbs
 
 ;; SERVER

Index: db.scm
==================================================================
--- db.scm
+++ db.scm
@@ -373,10 +373,11 @@
 	   '("tags"           #f)
 	   '("jobgroup"       #f)))))
     
 ;; tbls is ( ("tablename" ( "field1" [#f|proc1] ) ( "field2" [#f|proc2] ) .... ) )
 (define (db:sync-tables tbls fromdb todb . slave-dbs)
+  (mutex-lock! *db-sync-mutex*)
   (cond
    ((not fromdb) (debug:print 3 "WARNING: db:sync-tables called with fromdb missing") -1)
    ((not todb)   (debug:print 3 "WARNING: db:sync-tables called with todb missing") -2)
    ((not (sqlite3:database? fromdb))
     (debug:print 0 "ERROR: db:sync-tables called with fromdb not a database " fromdb) -3)
@@ -461,11 +462,12 @@
 		 (count   (cdr dat)))
 	     (set! tot-count (+ tot-count count))
 	     (if (> count 0)
 		 (debug:print 0 (format #f "    ~10a ~5a" tblname count)))))
 	 (sort (hash-table->alist numrecs)(lambda (a b)(> (cdr a)(cdr b))))))
-      tot-count))))
+      tot-count)))
+  (mutex-unlock! *db-sync-mutex*))
 
 ;; keeping it around for debugging purposes only
 (define (open-run-close-no-exception-handling  proc idb . params)
   (debug:print-info 11 "open-run-close-no-exception-handling START given a db=" (if idb "yes " "no ") ", params=" params)
   (if (or *db-write-access*
@@ -2237,11 +2239,11 @@
 ;; M I S C   M A N A G E M E N T   I T E M S 
 ;;======================================================================
 
 ;; A routine to map itempaths using a itemmap
 (define (db:compare-itempaths patha pathb itemmap)
-  (debug:print-info 3 "ITEMMAP is " itemmap)
+  (debug:print-info 6 "ITEMMAP is " itemmap)
   (if itemmap
       (let* ((mapparts    (string-split itemmap))
 	     (pattern     (car mapparts))
 	     (replacement (if (> (length mapparts) 1) (cadr mapparts) "")))
 	(if replacement