diff --git a/tests/docker/test-unit b/tests/docker/test-unit
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..8905d01150
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/docker/test-unit
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/bash -e
+#
+# Build and run the unit tests
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2018 Linaro Ltd.
+#
+# Authors:
+#  Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org>
+#
+# This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2
+# or (at your option) any later version. See the COPYING file in
+# the top-level directory.
+
+. common.rc
+
+cd "$BUILD_DIR"
+
+# although we are not building QEMU itself we still need a configured
+# build for the unit tests to be built and run
+configure_qemu
+check_qemu check-unit