diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dbf604
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+t/test-results/
diff --git a/t/Makefile b/t/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e10d3e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+SHELL_PATH ?= $(SHELL)
+PROVE ?= prove
+DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET ?= test
+
+SHELL_PATH_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(SHELL_PATH))
+
+T = $(sort $(wildcard t[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-*.sh))
+
+all: $(DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET)
+
+test: pre-clean
+	@$(MAKE) aggregate-results-and-cleanup
+
+prove: pre-clean
+	@echo '*** prove ***'; prove --exec '$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' $(PROVE_OPTS) $(T) :: $(TEST_OPTS)
+	@$(MAKE) clean-except-prove-cache
+
+aggregate-results:
+	@for f in test-results/t*-*.counts; do \
+		echo "$$f"; \
+	done | '$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' ./sharness/aggregate-results.sh
+
+pre-clean:
+	@$(RM) -r test-results
+
+clean-except-prove-cache:
+	@$(RM) -r 'trash directory'.* test-results
+
+clean: clean-except-prove-cache
+	@$(RM) .prove
+
+aggregate-results-and-cleanup: $(T)
+	@$(MAKE) aggregate-results
+	@$(MAKE) clean
+
+$(T):
+	@echo '*** $@ ***'; '$(SHELL_PATH_SQ)' $@
+
+.PHONY: all test prove aggregate-results $(T)
+.PHONY: pre-clean clean-except-prove-cache clean aggregate-results-and-cleanup
diff --git a/t/README.md b/t/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f93dd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# test suite
+
+This test suite is based on [sharness](http://mlafeldt.github.io/sharness/)
+
+## install
+
+It is installed (from toplevel dir) with:
+
+    git subtree add --squash --prefix t/sharness https://github.com/mlafeldt/sharness master
+
+and update from time to time with:
+
+    git subtree pull --squah --prefix t/sharness master
+
+Read http://blogs.atlassian.com/2013/05/alternatives-to-git-submodule-git-subtree/ for more info on git subtree, you can define a remote to simplify commands or contribute sharness from your fork
+
+## automation
+
+Although every test is executable by itselft an only depends on sharness, that's not operative. this test suite relays on [prove](http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Harness/bin/prove) and ancient and good-know [make](http://www.gnu.org/software/make/) to complete the test suite. Launch it with 
+
+    make 
+
+or
+
+    make DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET=prove
+
+## Credits
+
+Makefile was shamelessly stolen from [git-integration](https://github.com/johnkeeping/git-integration/blob/master/t/Makefile)
+
+Test cases are strongly based on [bash_ini_parser test suite](https://github.com/rudimeier/bash_ini_parser/blob/master/test/test.sh)
+
+
diff --git a/t/t0000-test-setup.sh b/t/t0000-test-setup.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..b0c3702
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t0000-test-setup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+test_description="Show basic features of Sharness"
+
+. sharness/sharness.sh
+
+test_expect_success "Success is reported like this" "
+    echo hello world | grep hello
+"
+
+test_expect_success "Commands are chained this way" "
+    test x = 'x' &&
+    test 2 -gt 1 &&
+    echo success
+"
+
+return_42() {
+    echo "Will return soon"
+    return 42
+}
+
+test_expect_success "You can test for a specific exit code" "
+    test_expect_code 42 return_42
+"
+
+test_expect_failure SKIP "We expect this to fail" "
+    test 1 = 2 
+"
+
+test_done
diff --git a/t/t0001-parse.sh b/t/t0001-parse.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..968dd9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t0001-parse.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+SHARNESS_TEST_EXTENSION="sh"
+
+test_description="check parse"
+
+. sharness/sharness.sh
+
+. ../../bash-ini-parser
+
+DIR_TEST=$SHARNESS_TEST_DIRECTORY/t0001
+
+test_expect_success "Whitespace parse" "
+    cfg_parser $DIR_TEST/test1.ini &&
+    cfg_writer > test1.out &&
+    diff -u test1.out $DIR_TEST/test1.out.correct
+"
+
+test_done
diff --git a/t/t0001/test1.ini b/t/t0001/test1.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7734bb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t0001/test1.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+;seccion one: clean whitespace
+[sec1]
+	   var1  =   foo
+	var2	   =hoge
+	var3 = fuga
+		var4=	pivo   
+[sec2]
+;this is the variable we want
+var1=bar
+var2=foo
+var3=eco
+;this is a multiword value
+var4="piyo baz qux"
+;this is an array
+var5=foo bar baz hoge
+var6=hoge
+
diff --git a/t/t0001/test1.out.correct b/t/t0001/test1.out.correct
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6fc3b36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t0001/test1.out.correct
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+[sec1]
+var1="foo"
+var2="hoge"
+var3="fuga"
+var4="pivo"
+[sec2]
+var1="bar"
+var2="foo"
+var3="eco"
+var4="piyo baz qux"
+;var5 is an array
+var5="foo bar baz hoge"
+var6="hoge"