diff --git a/bindep.txt b/bindep.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5628683d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindep.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# This is a cross-platform list tracking distribution packages needed by tests;
+# see http://docs.openstack.org/infra/bindep/ for additional information.
+
+build-essential [platform:dpkg]
+gcc [platform:rpm]
+liberasurecode-dev [platform:dpkg]
+liberasurecode-devel [platform:rpm]
+libffi-dev [platform:dpkg]
+libffi-devel [platform:rpm]
+libxml2-dev [platform:dpkg]
+libxml2-devel [platform:rpm]
+libxslt-devel [platform:rpm]
+libxslt1-dev [platform:dpkg]
+memcached
+python-dev [platform:dpkg]
+python-devel [platform:rpm]
+
+# Needed by swift
+rsync
+xfsprogs
+libssl-dev [platform:dpkg]
+openssl-devel [platform:rpm]
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 3e70af93..d482f33c 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -76,3 +76,14 @@ setenv = VIRTUAL_ENV={envdir}
 ignore = F812,H101,H202,H233,H237,H301,H306,H401,H403,H404,H405,H501
 exclude = .venv,.git,.tox,dist,doc,*egg,build
 show-source = True
+
+
+[testenv:bindep]
+# Do not install any requirements. We want this to be fast and work even if
+# system dependencies are missing, since it's used to tell you what system
+# dependencies are missing! This also means that bindep must be installed
+# separately, outside of the requirements files.
+usedevelop = False
+skip_install = True
+deps = bindep
+commands = bindep test