diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 2f14e67c..ed46469c 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2008-02-27  James Henstridge  <james@jamesh.id.au>
+
+	* runtests.py: add a harness to run all the psycopg tests against
+	the version built by distutils.
+
 2008-01-22  James Henstridge  <james@jamesh.id.au>
 
 	* psycopg/typecast.c (typecast_pydatetime): make array static.
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index fb219534..aa00abc5 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -12,4 +12,4 @@ check:
 	    dropdb $(TESTDB) >/dev/null; \
 	fi
 	createdb $(TESTDB)
-	PSYCOPG2_TESTDB=$(TESTDB) $(PYTHON) tests/__init__.py --verbose
+	PSYCOPG2_TESTDB=$(TESTDB) $(PYTHON) runtests.py --verbose
diff --git a/runtests.py b/runtests.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6124fad6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/runtests.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+"""A harness to run the psycopg test suite.
+
+If the distutils build directory exists, it will be inserted into the
+path so that the tests run against that version of psycopg.
+"""
+
+from distutils.util import get_platform
+import os
+import sys
+import unittest
+
+# Insert the distutils build directory into the path, if it exists.
+platlib = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'build',
+                       'lib.%s-%s' % (get_platform(), sys.version[0:3]))
+if os.path.exists(platlib):
+    sys.path.insert(0, platlib)
+
+import psycopg2
+import tests
+
+def test_suite():
+    return tests.test_suite()
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    unittest.main(defaultTest='test_suite')
+