diff --git a/src/wormhole/server/database.py b/src/wormhole/server/database.py
index 7cd09f9..d2589ad 100644
--- a/src/wormhole/server/database.py
+++ b/src/wormhole/server/database.py
@@ -64,3 +64,12 @@ def get_db(dbfile, target_version=TARGET_VERSION, stderr=sys.stderr):
         raise DBError("Unable to handle db version %s" % version)
 
     return db
+
+def dump_db(db):
+    # to let _iterdump work, we need to restore the original row factory
+    orig = db.row_factory
+    try:
+        db.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
+        return "".join(db.iterdump())
+    finally:
+        db.row_factory = orig
diff --git a/src/wormhole/test/test_database.py b/src/wormhole/test/test_database.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..460508e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/wormhole/test/test_database.py
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+from __future__ import print_function, unicode_literals
+import os
+from twisted.trial import unittest
+from ..server.database import get_db, TARGET_VERSION, dump_db
+
+class DB(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_create_default(self):
+        db_url = ":memory:"
+        db = get_db(db_url)
+        rows = db.execute("SELECT * FROM version").fetchall()
+        self.assertEqual(len(rows), 1)
+        self.assertEqual(rows[0]["version"], TARGET_VERSION)
+
+    def test_upgrade(self):
+        basedir = self.mktemp()
+        os.mkdir(basedir)
+        fn = os.path.join(basedir, "upgrade.db")
+        self.assertNotEqual(TARGET_VERSION, 2)
+
+        # create an old-version DB in a file
+        db = get_db(fn, 2)
+        rows = db.execute("SELECT * FROM version").fetchall()
+        self.assertEqual(len(rows), 1)
+        self.assertEqual(rows[0]["version"], 2)
+        del db
+
+        # then upgrade the file to the latest version
+        dbA = get_db(fn, TARGET_VERSION)
+        rows = dbA.execute("SELECT * FROM version").fetchall()
+        self.assertEqual(len(rows), 1)
+        self.assertEqual(rows[0]["version"], TARGET_VERSION)
+        dbA_text = dump_db(dbA)
+        del dbA
+
+        # make sure the upgrades got committed to disk
+        dbB = get_db(fn, TARGET_VERSION)
+        dbB_text = dump_db(dbB)
+        del dbB
+        self.assertEqual(dbA_text, dbB_text)
+
+        # The upgraded schema should be equivalent to that of a new DB.
+        # However a text dump will differ because ALTER TABLE always appends
+        # the new column to the end of a table, whereas our schema puts it
+        # somewhere in the middle (wherever it fits naturally). Also ALTER
+        # TABLE doesn't include comments.
+        if False:
+            latest_db = get_db(":memory:", TARGET_VERSION)
+            latest_text = dump_db(latest_db)
+            with open("up.sql","w") as f: f.write(dbA_text)
+            with open("new.sql","w") as f: f.write(latest_text)
+            # check with "diff -u _trial_temp/up.sql _trial_temp/new.sql"
+            self.assertEqual(dbA_text, latest_text)
+    test_upgrade.skip = "disabled until at least one upgrader is written"