diff --git a/client/dbclient.cpp b/client/dbclient.cpp
index 8e7d4b40c36..0c6b06563ba 100644
--- a/client/dbclient.cpp
+++ b/client/dbclient.cpp
@@ -288,6 +288,35 @@ namespace mongo {
         return eval(dbname, jscode, info, retValue);
     }
 
+    list<string> DBClientWithCommands::getDatabaseNames(){
+        BSONObj info;
+        uassert( "listdatabases failed" , runCommand( "admin" , BSON( "listDatabases" << 1 ) , info ) );
+        uassert( "listDatabases.databases not array" , info["databases"].type() == Array );
+        
+        list<string> names;
+        
+        BSONObjIterator i( info["databases"].embeddedObjectUserCheck() );
+        while ( i.more() ){
+            names.push_back( i.next().embeddedObjectUserCheck()["name"].valuestr() );
+        }
+
+        return names;
+    }
+
+    list<string> DBClientWithCommands::getCollectionNames( const string& db ){
+        list<string> names;
+        
+        string ns = db + ".system.namespaces";
+        auto_ptr<DBClientCursor> c = query( ns.c_str() , BSONObj() );
+        while ( c->more() ){
+            string name = c->next()["name"].valuestr();
+            if ( name.find( "$" ) != string::npos )
+                continue;
+            names.push_back( name );
+        }
+        return names;
+    }
+
     void testSort() { 
         DBClientConnection c;
         string err;
diff --git a/client/dbclient.h b/client/dbclient.h
index fb4b7fd71d4..6afc9ce95bc 100644
--- a/client/dbclient.h
+++ b/client/dbclient.h
@@ -482,6 +482,16 @@ namespace mongo {
             return true;
         }
         
+        /**
+           get a list of all the current databases
+         */
+        list<string> getDatabaseNames();
+
+        /**
+           get a list of all the current collections in db
+         */
+        list<string> getCollectionNames( const string& db );
+
         virtual string toString() = 0;
 
         /** @return the database name portion of an ns string */
diff --git a/client/examples/clientTest.cpp b/client/examples/clientTest.cpp
index ce7fc5f0a72..02cd2983479 100644
--- a/client/examples/clientTest.cpp
+++ b/client/examples/clientTest.cpp
@@ -166,5 +166,17 @@ int main( int argc, const char **argv ) {
         
     }
     
+    {
+        list<string> l = conn.getDatabaseNames();
+        for ( list<string>::iterator i = l.begin(); i != l.end(); i++ ){
+            cout << "db name : " << *i << endl;
+        }
+
+        l = conn.getCollectionNames( "test" );
+        for ( list<string>::iterator i = l.begin(); i != l.end(); i++ ){
+            cout << "coll name : " << *i << endl;
+        }
+    }
+
     cout << "client test finished!" << endl;
 }