diff --git a/doc/environment-vars.txt b/doc/environment-vars.txt
index 18e0dde2b..341987137 100644
--- a/doc/environment-vars.txt
+++ b/doc/environment-vars.txt
@@ -117,3 +117,6 @@ DEV_THROTTLE_KBPS (integer):
 DEV_THROTTLE_LATENCY_MS (integer):
   Rate limit and/or inject latency in pkg/webserver responses. A value of 0
   disables traffic-shaping.
+
+RUN_BROKEN_TESTS (bool:
+  Run known-broken tests.
diff --git a/pkg/test/test.go b/pkg/test/test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..53723eff9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/test/test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2013 The Camlistore Authors
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package test
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"strconv"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// BrokenTest marks the test as broken and calls t.Skip, unless the environment
+// variable RUN_BROKEN_TESTS is set to 1 (or some other boolean true value).
+func BrokenTest(t *testing.T) {
+	if v, _ := strconv.ParseBool(os.Getenv("RUN_BROKEN_TESTS")); !v {
+		t.Skipf("Skipping broken tests without RUN_BROKEN_TESTS=1")
+	}
+}