diff --git a/bindep.txt b/bindep.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a2011f5f4d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindep.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# This file contains runtime (non-python) dependencies
+# More info at: http://docs.openstack.org/infra/bindep/readme.html
+
+# tools/misc-sanity-checks.sh validates .po[t] files
+gettext [test]
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 6c77d61d65e..0835f9af021 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -147,3 +147,13 @@ local-check-factory = neutron.hacking.checks.factory
 
 [testenv:genconfig]
 commands = {toxinidir}/tools/generate_config_file_samples.sh
+
+# This environment can be used to quickly validate that all needed system
+# packages required to successfully execute test targets are installed
+[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.
+deps = bindep
+commands = bindep test