diff --git a/tests/scripts/test-ref-configs.pl b/tests/scripts/test-ref-configs.pl
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..5b9f8fbc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/scripts/test-ref-configs.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+# test standard configurations:
+# - build
+# - run test suite
+# - run compat.sh
+
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+my %configs = (
+    'config-psk-rc4-tls1_0.h'   => "-m tls1   -f 'PSK.*RC4'",
+    'config-mini-tls1_1.h'
+    => "-m tls1_1 -f '^DES-CBC3-SHA\$\|^TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA\$'",
+    'config-suite-b.h'          => "-m tls1_2 -f 'ECDSA.*GCM'",
+);
+
+-d 'library' && -d 'include' && -d 'tests' or die "Must be run from root\n";
+
+my $test = system( "grep -i cmake Makefile >/dev/null" ) ? 'check' : 'test';
+
+my $config_h = 'include/polarssl/config.h';
+
+system( "cp $config_h $config_h.bak" ) and die;
+sub abort {
+    system( "mv $config_h.bak $config_h" ) and warn "$config_h not restored\n";
+    die $_[0];
+}
+
+while( my ($conf, $args) = each %configs ) {
+    system( "cp $config_h.bak $config_h" ) and die;
+    system( "make clean" ) and die;
+
+    print "\n******************************************\n";
+    print "* Testing configuration: $conf\n";
+    print "******************************************\n";
+
+    system( "cd scripts && ./activate-config.pl data_files/$conf" )
+        and abort "Failed to activate $conf\n";
+
+    system( "make" ) and abort "Failed to build: $conf\n";
+    system( "make $test" ) and abort "Failed test suite: $conf\n";
+    system( "cd tests && ./compat.sh $args" )
+        and abort "Failed compat.sh: $conf\n";
+}
+
+system( "mv $config_h.bak $config_h" ) and warn "$config_h not restored\n";
+system( "make clean" );
+exit 0;