'from an old moodle site' - how old? Version of moodle?
Also what version of Moodle attempting to install to as well as version of moosh is installed? PHP version?
In comparing your moosh command to
https://moosh-online.com/commands/#course-backup
looks nothing like your command?
Example 3: Backup course id=3 without any user data (excludes users, logs, grade historyies, role assignments, comments, and filters):
moosh course-backup --template 3
-n option is ok, but the -f stuff?
Are you trying to save the .mbz to another location? Don't.
Moosh will create file backup filename. Like below (real example):
[root@sos cli]# moosh32 -n course-backup --template 59
returned:
/var/www/html/moodle38/admin/cli/backup_59_MDLCLI_2021.09.14.mbz
(I have multiple moosh versions so moosh32 command above is correct only for my server ... not other servers.)
You can move the .mbz after moosh completes.
Also, hows the DB for that site?
Might want to run the mysql_ scripts in code/admin/cli/
'SoS', Ken