diff --git a/bindep.txt b/bindep.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..490ad5e581
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindep.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# This is a cross-platform list tracking distribution packages needed for install and tests;                                                            # see http://docs.openstack.org/infra/bindep/ for additional information.
+
+build-essential [platform:dpkg test]
+gcc [platform:rpm test]
+gettext [!platform:suse]
+gettext-runtime [platform:suse]
+libffi-dev [platform:dpkg]
+libffi-devel [platform:redhat]
+libffi48-devel [platform:suse]
+virtual/libffi [platform:gentoo]
+locales [platform:debian]
+mariadb [platform:rpm]
+mariadb-server [platform:redhat]
+mariadb-devel [platform:redhat]
+libmysqlclient-dev [platform:dpkg]
+libmysqlclient-devel [platform:suse]
+mysql-client [platform:dpkg]
+mysql-server [platform:dpkg]
+postgresql
+postgresql-client [platform:dpkg]
+postgresql-devel [platform:rpm]
+postgresql-server [platform:rpm]
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 279d2264cd..7e2f5424b2 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -99,6 +99,17 @@ commands =
   rm -rf api-ref/build
   sphinx-build -W -b html -d api-ref/build/doctrees api-ref/source api-ref/build/html
 
+[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, and develop mode disabled
+# explicitly to avoid unnecessarily installing the checked-out repo too (this
+# further relies on "tox.skipsdist = True" above).
+deps = bindep
+commands = bindep test
+usedevelop = False
+
 [flake8]
 # TODO(dmllr): Analyze or fix the warnings blacklisted below
 # E711  comparison to None should be 'if cond is not None:'