diff --git a/t/t9700-perl-git.sh b/t/t9700-perl-git.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..b2fb9ece9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t9700-perl-git.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2008 Lea Wiemann
+#
+
+test_description='perl interface (Git.pm)'
+. ./test-lib.sh
+
+# set up test repository
+
+test_expect_success \
+    'set up test repository' \
+    'echo "test file 1" > file1 &&
+     echo "test file 2" > file2 &&
+     mkdir directory1 &&
+     echo "in directory1" >> directory1/file &&
+     mkdir directory2 &&
+     echo "in directory2" >> directory2/file &&
+     git add . &&
+     git commit -m "first commit" &&
+
+     echo "changed file 1" > file1 &&
+     git commit -a -m "second commit" &&
+
+     git-config --add color.test.slot1 green &&
+     git-config --add test.string value &&
+     git-config --add test.dupstring value1 &&
+     git-config --add test.dupstring value2 &&
+     git-config --add test.booltrue true &&
+     git-config --add test.boolfalse no &&
+     git-config --add test.boolother other &&
+     git-config --add test.int 2k
+     '
+
+test_external_without_stderr \
+    'Perl API' \
+    perl ../t9700/test.pl
+
+test_done
diff --git a/t/t9700/test.pl b/t/t9700/test.pl
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..4d2312548a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t9700/test.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+use lib (split(/:/, $ENV{GITPERLLIB}));
+
+use 5.006002;
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+use Test::More qw(no_plan);
+
+use Cwd;
+use File::Basename;
+use File::Temp;
+
+BEGIN { use_ok('Git') }
+
+# set up
+our $repo_dir = "trash directory";
+our $abs_repo_dir = Cwd->cwd;
+die "this must be run by calling the t/t97* shell script(s)\n"
+    if basename(Cwd->cwd) ne $repo_dir;
+ok(our $r = Git->repository(Directory => "."), "open repository");
+
+# config
+is($r->config("test.string"), "value", "config scalar: string");
+is_deeply([$r->config("test.dupstring")], ["value1", "value2"],
+	  "config array: string");
+is($r->config("test.nonexistent"), undef, "config scalar: nonexistent");
+is_deeply([$r->config("test.nonexistent")], [], "config array: nonexistent");
+is($r->config_int("test.int"), 2048, "config_int: integer");
+is($r->config_int("test.nonexistent"), undef, "config_int: nonexistent");
+ok($r->config_bool("test.booltrue"), "config_bool: true");
+ok(!$r->config_bool("test.boolfalse"), "config_bool: false");
+our $ansi_green = "\x1b[32m";
+is($r->get_color("color.test.slot1", "red"), $ansi_green, "get_color");
+# Cannot test $r->get_colorbool("color.foo")) because we do not
+# control whether our STDOUT is a terminal.
+
+# Failure cases for config:
+# Save and restore STDERR; we will probably extract this into a
+# "dies_ok" method and possibly move the STDERR handling to Git.pm.
+open our $tmpstderr, ">&", STDERR or die "cannot save STDERR"; close STDERR;
+eval { $r->config("test.dupstring") };
+ok($@, "config: duplicate entry in scalar context fails");
+eval { $r->config_bool("test.boolother") };
+ok($@, "config_bool: non-boolean values fail");
+open STDERR, ">&", $tmpstderr or die "cannot restore STDERR";
+
+# ident
+like($r->ident("aUthor"), qr/^A U Thor <author\@example.com> [0-9]+ \+0000$/,
+     "ident scalar: author (type)");
+like($r->ident("cOmmitter"), qr/^C O Mitter <committer\@example.com> [0-9]+ \+0000$/,
+     "ident scalar: committer (type)");
+is($r->ident("invalid"), "invalid", "ident scalar: invalid ident string (no parsing)");
+my ($name, $email, $time_tz) = $r->ident('author');
+is_deeply([$name, $email], ["A U Thor", "author\@example.com"],
+	 "ident array: author");
+like($time_tz, qr/[0-9]+ \+0000/, "ident array: author");
+is_deeply([$r->ident("Name <email> 123 +0000")], ["Name", "email", "123 +0000"],
+	  "ident array: ident string");
+is_deeply([$r->ident("invalid")], [], "ident array: invalid ident string");
+
+# ident_person
+is($r->ident_person("aUthor"), "A U Thor <author\@example.com>",
+   "ident_person: author (type)");
+is($r->ident_person("Name <email> 123 +0000"), "Name <email>",
+   "ident_person: ident string");
+is($r->ident_person("Name", "email", "123 +0000"), "Name <email>",
+   "ident_person: array");
+
+# objects and hashes
+ok(our $file1hash = $r->command_oneline('rev-parse', "HEAD:file1"), "(get file hash)");
+our $tmpfile = File::Temp->new;
+is($r->cat_blob($file1hash, $tmpfile), 15, "cat_blob: size");
+our $blobcontents;
+{ local $/; seek $tmpfile, 0, 0; $blobcontents = <$tmpfile>; }
+is($blobcontents, "changed file 1\n", "cat_blob: data");
+seek $tmpfile, 0, 0;
+is(Git::hash_object("blob", $tmpfile), $file1hash, "hash_object: roundtrip");
+$tmpfile = File::Temp->new();
+print $tmpfile my $test_text = "test blob, to be inserted\n";
+like(our $newhash = $r->hash_and_insert_object($tmpfile), qr/[0-9a-fA-F]{40}/,
+     "hash_and_insert_object: returns hash");
+$tmpfile = File::Temp->new;
+is($r->cat_blob($newhash, $tmpfile), length $test_text, "cat_blob: roundtrip size");
+{ local $/; seek $tmpfile, 0, 0; $blobcontents = <$tmpfile>; }
+is($blobcontents, $test_text, "cat_blob: roundtrip data");
+
+# paths
+is($r->repo_path, "./.git", "repo_path");
+is($r->wc_path, $abs_repo_dir . "/", "wc_path");
+is($r->wc_subdir, "", "wc_subdir initial");
+$r->wc_chdir("directory1");
+is($r->wc_subdir, "directory1", "wc_subdir after wc_chdir");
+TODO: {
+	local $TODO = "commands do not work after wc_chdir";
+	# Failure output is active even in non-verbose mode and thus
+	# annoying.  Hence we skip these tests as long as they fail.
+	todo_skip 'config after wc_chdir', 1;
+	is($r->config("color.string"), "value", "config after wc_chdir");
+}