diff --git a/check-guile.in b/check-guile.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..547a93753
--- /dev/null
+++ b/check-guile.in
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+#! /bin/sh
+# Usage: check-guile [-i GUILE-INTERPRETER] [GUILE-TEST-ARGS]
+# If `-i GUILE-INTERPRETER' is omitted, use ${top_srcdir}/pre-inst-guile.
+# See test-suite/guile-test for documentation on GUILE-TEST-ARGS.
+#
+# Example invocations:
+# ./check-guile
+# ./check-guile numbers.test
+# ./check-guile -i /usr/local/bin/guile
+# ./check-guile -i /usr/local/bin/guile numbers.test
+
+set -e
+
+# this script runs in the top-level build-dir.
+top_builddir=`pwd`
+top_srcdir=@top_srcdir@
+
+TEST_SUITE_DIR=${top_srcdir}/test-suite
+
+if [ x"$1" = x-i ] ; then
+    guile=$2
+    guile_opts=
+    shift
+    shift
+else
+    guile=${top_srcdir}/pre-inst-guile
+    guile_opts="${top_builddir}"
+fi
+
+GUILE_LOAD_PATH=$TEST_SUITE_DIR
+export GUILE_LOAD_PATH
+
+if [ -f "$guile" -a -x "$guile" ] ; then
+    echo Testing $guile ... "$@"
+    echo with GUILE_LOAD_PATH=$GUILE_LOAD_PATH
+else
+    echo ERROR: Cannot execute $guile
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# documentation searching ignores GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
+if [ ! -f guile-procedures.txt ] ; then
+   @LN_S@ libguile/guile-procedures.txt .
+fi
+
+exec $guile $guile_opts \
+    -e main -s "$TEST_SUITE_DIR/guile-test" \
+    --test-suite "$TEST_SUITE_DIR/tests" \
+    --log-file check-guile.log "$@"
+
+# check-guile ends here
diff --git a/pre-inst-guile b/pre-inst-guile
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/pre-inst-guile.am b/pre-inst-guile.am
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb