diff --git a/Modules/berval.c b/Modules/berval.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c71bb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Modules/berval.c
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+/* See http://www.python-ldap.org/ for details.
+ * $Id: berval.c,v 1.1 2009/08/17 01:49:47 leonard Exp $ */
+
+#include "common.h"
+#include "berval.h"
+
+/*
+ * Converts a Python object into a data for a berval structure.
+ *
+ * New memory is allocated, and the content of the object is copied into it.
+ * Then the (pre-existing) berval structure's field are filled in with pointer
+ * and length data.
+ *
+ * The source object must implement the buffer interface, or be None.
+ * If the source object is None, bv->bv_val will be set to NULL and bv_len to 0.
+ * Otherwise, bv->bv_val will be non-NULL (even for zero-length data).
+ * This allows the caller to distinguish a None argument as something special.
+ *
+ * Returns 0 on failure, leaving *bv unchanged, and setting an error.
+ * Returns 1 on success: the berval must be freed with LDAPberval_release().
+ */
+int
+LDAPberval_from_object(PyObject *obj, struct berval *bv)
+{
+    const void *data;
+    char *datacp;
+    Py_ssize_t len;
+
+    if (PyNone_Check(obj)) {
+        bv->bv_len = 0;
+        bv->bv_val = NULL;
+        return 1;
+    }
+
+    if (!PyObject_AsReadBuffer(obj, &data, &len))
+        return 0;
+
+    datacp = PyMem_MALLOC(len ? len : 1);
+    if (!datacp) {
+        PyErr_NoMemory();
+        return 0;
+    }
+    memcpy(datacp, data, len);
+
+    bv->bv_len = len;
+    bv->bv_val = datacp;
+    return 1;
+}
+
+/*
+ * Returns true if the object could be used to initialize a berval structure
+ * with LDAPberval_from_object()
+ */
+int
+LDAPberval_from_object_check(PyObject *obj)
+{
+    return PyNone_Check(obj) ||
+           PyObject_CheckReadBuffer(obj);
+}
+
+/*
+ * Releases memory allocated by LDAPberval_from_object().
+ * Has no effect if the berval pointer is NULL or the berval data is NULL.
+ */
+void
+LDAPberval_release(struct berval *bv) {
+    if (bv && bv->bv_val) {
+        PyMem_FREE(bv->bv_val);
+        bv->bv_len = 0;
+        bv->bv_val = NULL;
+    }
+}
+
+/*
+ * Copies out the data from a berval, and returns it as a new Python object,
+ * Returns None if the berval pointer is NULL.
+ *
+ * Note that this function is not the exact inverse of LDAPberval_from_object
+ * with regards to the NULL/None conversion.
+ *
+ * Returns a new Python object on success, or NULL on failure.
+ */
+PyObject *
+LDAPberval_to_object(const struct berval *bv)
+{
+    PyObject *ret = NULL;
+
+    if (!bv) {
+        ret = Py_None;
+        Py_INCREF(ret);
+    }
+    else {
+        ret = PyString_FromStringAndSize(bv->bv_val, bv->bv_len);
+    }
+
+    return ret;
+}
diff --git a/Modules/berval.h b/Modules/berval.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b32438
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Modules/berval.h
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+/* See http://www.python-ldap.org/ for details.
+ * $Id: berval.h,v 1.1 2009/08/17 01:49:47 leonard Exp $ */
+
+#ifndef __h_berval 
+#define __h_berval 
+
+#include "common.h"
+#include "lber.h"
+
+int  LDAPberval_from_object(PyObject *obj, struct berval *bv);
+int  LDAPberval_from_object_check(PyObject *obj);
+void LDAPberval_release(struct berval *bv);
+PyObject *LDAPberval_to_object(const struct berval *bv);
+
+#endif /* __h_berval_ */
diff --git a/Tests/runtests.sh b/Tests/runtests.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..f857025
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/runtests.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# This script runs all the t_*.py tests in the current directory,
+# preparing PYTHONPATH to use the most recent local build
+#
+# Run with -v option for verbose
+#
+
+set -e
+: ${PYTHON:="python"}
+plat_specifier=`$PYTHON -c 'import sys,distutils.util; \
+        print(distutils.util.get_platform()+"-"+sys.version[0:3])'`
+failed=
+for test in t_*.py;  do
+    echo "$test:"
+    PYTHONPATH="../build/lib.$plat_specifier" $PYTHON "$test" "$@" || 
+        failed="$failed $test"
+done
+
+if test -n "$failed"; then
+   echo "Tests that failed:$failed" >&2
+   exit 1
+else
+   echo "All tests passed. Yay."
+   exit 0
+fi