The announcement for KDE 4.9 and another article I found states that there is now a backup/restore for Kontact and it's components. Where is it located, how does it work, and how do I access it? TIA

/usr/bin/backupmail iirc this only currently works on mail

from the 4.9 feature plan:

backup Mail saves/restores mail config/config (akonadi)/database nepomuk/resources etc.

I did find the backupmail program, thanks. I tried running it and got an error on the Backing up Akonadi Database... Could not find "mysqldump" necessary to dump database. I did a search in Muon for "mysqldump" and it wasn't found. I tried a google search and couldn't locate the program as a standalone. I did, by trial and error, have to install the mysqlclient to get this function. Should Kontact not do that in Muon as a dependancy if it is needed? Now, I need to test a restore on another machine.

fyi - I don't use Muon but doesn't it have an option to search within package contents? Sometimes you need to search for the file name not the package name. For example if you use a *buntu there is a package search webpage http://packages.ubuntu.com/ for this.

As for shouldn't it be a dependency you could post a bug report on bugs.kde.org

Issues with packaging, which include dependencies, should be reported to the packagers or distribution responsible for the packages you are using.