diff --git a/keystoneauth1/tests/unit/matchers.py b/keystoneauth1/tests/unit/matchers.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6076f348
--- /dev/null
+++ b/keystoneauth1/tests/unit/matchers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+# Copyright 2013 OpenStack Foundation
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+from lxml import etree
+from testtools import matchers
+
+
+class XMLEquals(object):
+    """Parses two XML documents from strings and compares the results.
+
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, expected):
+        self.expected = expected
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return "%s(%r)" % (self.__class__.__name__, self.expected)
+
+    def match(self, other):
+        def xml_element_equals(expected_doc, observed_doc):
+            """Tests whether two XML documents are equivalent.
+
+            This is a recursive algorithm that operates on each element in
+            the hierarchy. Siblings are sorted before being checked to
+            account for two semantically equivalent documents where siblings
+            appear in different document order.
+
+            The sorting algorithm is a little weak in that it could fail for
+            documents where siblings at a given level are the same, but have
+            different children.
+
+            """
+
+            if expected_doc.tag != observed_doc.tag:
+                return False
+
+            if expected_doc.attrib != observed_doc.attrib:
+                return False
+
+            def _sorted_children(doc):
+                return sorted(doc.getchildren(), key=lambda el: el.tag)
+
+            expected_children = _sorted_children(expected_doc)
+            observed_children = _sorted_children(observed_doc)
+
+            if len(expected_children) != len(observed_children):
+                return False
+
+            for expected_el, observed_el in zip(expected_children,
+                                                observed_children):
+                if not xml_element_equals(expected_el, observed_el):
+                    return False
+
+            return True
+
+        parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True)
+        expected_doc = etree.fromstring(self.expected.strip(), parser)
+        observed_doc = etree.fromstring(other.strip(), parser)
+
+        if xml_element_equals(expected_doc, observed_doc):
+            return
+
+        return XMLMismatch(self.expected, other)
+
+
+class XMLMismatch(matchers.Mismatch):
+
+    def __init__(self, expected, other):
+        self.expected = expected
+        self.other = other
+
+    def describe(self):
+        def pretty_xml(xml):
+            parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True)
+            doc = etree.fromstring(xml.strip(), parser)
+            return (etree.tostring(doc, encoding='utf-8', pretty_print=True)
+                    .decode('utf-8'))
+
+        return 'expected =\n%s\nactual =\n%s' % (
+            pretty_xml(self.expected), pretty_xml(self.other))
diff --git a/keystoneauth1/tests/unit/test_matchers.py b/keystoneauth1/tests/unit/test_matchers.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..01e92785
--- /dev/null
+++ b/keystoneauth1/tests/unit/test_matchers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+# Copyright 2013 OpenStack Foundation
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+# a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+# WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+# License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+import testtools
+from testtools.tests.matchers import helpers
+
+from keystoneauth1.tests.unit import matchers
+
+
+class TestXMLEquals(testtools.TestCase, helpers.TestMatchersInterface):
+    matches_xml = b"""<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<test xmlns="http://docs.openstack.org/identity/api/v2.0">
+    <first z="0" y="1" x="2"/>
+    <second a="a" b="b"></second>
+</test>
+"""
+    equivalent_xml = b"""<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<test xmlns="http://docs.openstack.org/identity/api/v2.0">
+    <second a="a" b="b"/>
+    <first z="0" y="1" x="2"></first>
+</test>
+"""
+    mismatches_xml = b"""<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<test xmlns="http://docs.openstack.org/identity/api/v2.0">
+    <nope_it_fails/>
+</test>
+"""
+    mismatches_description = """expected =
+<test xmlns="http://docs.openstack.org/identity/api/v2.0">
+  <first z="0" y="1" x="2"/>
+  <second a="a" b="b"/>
+</test>
+
+actual =
+<test xmlns="http://docs.openstack.org/identity/api/v2.0">
+  <nope_it_fails/>
+</test>
+"""
+
+    matches_matcher = matchers.XMLEquals(matches_xml)
+    matches_matches = [matches_xml, equivalent_xml]
+    matches_mismatches = [mismatches_xml]
+    describe_examples = [
+        (mismatches_description, mismatches_xml, matches_matcher),
+    ]
+    str_examples = [('XMLEquals(%r)' % matches_xml, matches_matcher)]