diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 01ea4f13..d2a11ebd 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ $(top_srcdir)/test/pacman/tests/TESTS: $(wildcard test/pacman/tests/*.py*)
 
 TESTS =  test/scripts/parseopts_test.sh \
 				 test/scripts/human_to_size_test.sh \
+				 test/scripts/makepkg-template_test.sh \
 				 test/scripts/pacman-db-upgrade-v9.py \
 				 test/util/pacsorttest.sh \
 				 test/util/vercmptest.sh
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@ TEST_SUITE_LOG = test/test-suite.log
 TEST_EXTENSIONS = .py
 AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
 	PMTEST_UTIL_DIR=$(top_builddir)/src/util/; export PMTEST_UTIL_DIR; \
+	PMTEST_SCRIPT_DIR=$(top_builddir)/scripts/; export PMTEST_SCRIPT_DIR; \
 	PMTEST_SCRIPTLIB_DIR=$(top_srcdir)/scripts/library/; export PMTEST_SCRIPTLIB_DIR;
 LOG_DRIVER = env AM_TAP_AWK='$(AWK)' $(SHELL) \
 								 $(top_srcdir)/build-aux/tap-driver.sh
diff --git a/test/scripts/Makefile.am b/test/scripts/Makefile.am
index 8d6bc842..ed1a9511 100644
--- a/test/scripts/Makefile.am
+++ b/test/scripts/Makefile.am
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 check_SCRIPTS = \
 	parseopts_test.sh \
 	pacman-db-upgrade-v9.py \
+	makepkg-template_test.sh \
 	human_to_size_test.sh
 
 noinst_SCRIPTS = $(check_SCRIPTS)
diff --git a/test/scripts/makepkg-template-tests/testcase-config-template b/test/scripts/makepkg-template-tests/testcase-config-template
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..66267d3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/scripts/makepkg-template-tests/testcase-config-template
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+arguments+=()
+expected_exitcode=0
+
+# set IFS="" if you want trailing new line(s), otherwise remove it
+IFS="" read -d '' expected_output <<'EOF'
+EOF
+
+IFS="" read -d '' expected_result <<'EOF'
+EOF
diff --git a/test/scripts/makepkg-template_test.sh b/test/scripts/makepkg-template_test.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..b2531d4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/scripts/makepkg-template_test.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+source "$(dirname "$0")"/../tap.sh || exit 1
+
+script=${1:-${PMTEST_SCRIPT_DIR}makepkg-template}
+
+if ! type -p "$script" &>/dev/null; then
+	tap_bail "makepkg-template executable (%s) could not be located" "${script}"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+TMPDIR="$(mktemp -d "/tmp/${0##*/}.XXXXXX")"
+trap "rm -rf '${TMPDIR}'" EXIT TERM
+cp -r "${0%/*}/makepkg-template-tests" "$TMPDIR/makepkg-template-tests"
+
+# normalize paths
+script="$(readlink -f $(type -p "$script"))"
+cd "$TMPDIR"
+testdir="./makepkg-template-tests"
+
+
+total=$(find "$testdir" -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d | wc -l)
+if [[ -z "$total" ]]; then
+	tap_bail "unable to determine total number of tests"
+	exit 1
+fi
+tap_plan "$((total*3))"
+
+run_test() {
+	local testcase=$1 exitcode expected_result expected_output
+	local -a arguments
+	local -i expected_exitcode=-1
+
+	[[ -f "$testdir/$testcase/testcase-config" ]] || continue
+	source "$testdir/$testcase/testcase-config"
+
+	mkdir "$TMPDIR/$testcase"
+	touch "$TMPDIR/$testcase/result"
+
+	# work around autotools not putting symlinks into the release tarball
+	[[ -d "$TMPDIR/$testdir/$testcase/templates" ]] || mkdir "$TMPDIR/$testdir/$testcase/templates"
+	if type -t _setup_testcase >/dev/null; then
+		cd "$TMPDIR/$testdir/$testcase"
+		_setup_testcase
+		unset -f _setup_testcase
+		cd "$TMPDIR"
+	fi
+
+	LC_ALL=C "$script" \
+		--template-dir "$testdir/$testcase/templates" \
+		-p "$testdir/$testcase/PKGBUILD" \
+		-o "$TMPDIR/$testcase/result" \
+		&> "$TMPDIR/$testcase/output" "${arguments[@]}"
+	exitcode=$?
+
+	tap_is_int "$exitcode" "$expected_exitcode" "$testcase exitcode"
+	tap_diff "$TMPDIR/$testcase/output" <(printf "%s" "$expected_output") "$testcase output"
+	tap_diff "$TMPDIR/$testcase/result" <(printf "%s" "$expected_result") "$testcase resulting PKGBUILD"
+}
+
+for dir in "$testdir/"*; do
+	if [[ -d "$dir" ]]; then
+		run_test "${dir##*/}"
+	fi
+done
+
+tap_finish