diff --git a/bindep.txt b/bindep.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e4bc4c912e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindep.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+# This is a cross-platform list tracking distribution packages needed for
+# install and tests;
+# see https://docs.openstack.org/infra/bindep/ for additional information.
+
+build-essential [platform:dpkg test]
+gcc [platform:rpm test]
+# gettext and graphviz are needed by doc builds only. For transition,
+# have them in both doc and test.
+# TODO(jaegerandi): Remove test once infra scripts are updated.
+gettext [!platform:suse doc test]
+gettext-runtime [platform:suse doc test]
+graphviz [doc test]
+libffi-dev [platform:dpkg]
+libffi-devel [platform:redhat]
+libffi48-devel [platform:suse]
+virtual/libffi [platform:gentoo]
+libssl-dev [platform:dpkg]
+openssl-devel [platform:rpm !platform:suse]
+libopenssl-devel [platform:suse !platform:rpm]
+locales [platform:debian]
+mariadb [platform:rpm]
+mariadb-server [platform:redhat]
+mariadb-devel [platform:redhat]
+libmysqlclient-dev [platform:dpkg]
+libmysqlclient-devel [platform:suse]
+libpq-dev [platform:dpkg]
+mysql-client [platform:dpkg]
+mysql-server [platform:dpkg]
+postgresql
+postgresql-client [platform:dpkg]
+postgresql-devel [platform:rpm]
+postgresql-server [platform:rpm]
+libxml2-dev [platform:dpkg test]
+libxslt-devel [platform:rpm test]
+libxslt1-dev [platform:dpkg test]
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index b351814b2a..e4e143adbd 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -69,6 +69,18 @@ commands = {posargs}
 [testenv:docs]
 commands = python setup.py build_sphinx
 
+[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).
+basepython = python3
+deps = bindep
+commands = bindep test
+usedevelop = False
+
 [testenv:cover]
 commands = {toxinidir}/tools/cover.sh {posargs}