diff --git a/README-maintainer b/README-maintainer
index fd787e6b..3bac1549 100644
--- a/README-maintainer
+++ b/README-maintainer
@@ -326,6 +326,15 @@ rehash
 pip3 install .
 pytest -n auto
 
+* Run package tests:
+
+cmake -S . -B build.tmp -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
+cmake --build build.tmp -j$(nproc)
+DESTDIR=/tmp/inst cmake --install build.tmp
+env PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/tmp/inst/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig \
+    CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/tmp/inst/usr/local \
+   ./pkg-test/run-all
+
 
 CREATING A RELEASE
 
@@ -339,7 +348,7 @@ CREATING A RELEASE
 version=x.y.z
 gpg --detach-sign --armor qpdf-$version.tar.gz
 
-* Build and test the debian package
+* Build and test the debian package. This includes running autopkgtest.
 
 * Add a calendar reminder to check the status of the debian package to
   make sure it is transitioning properly and to resolve any issues.
diff --git a/manual/packaging.rst b/manual/packaging.rst
index 50f8fc60..298a41a3 100644
--- a/manual/packaging.rst
+++ b/manual/packaging.rst
@@ -38,6 +38,18 @@ particularly useful to packagers.
   11, this was a recommendation for packagers but was not done
   automatically.
 
+.. _package-tests:
+
+Package Tests
+-------------
+
+The :file:`pkg-test` directory contains very small test shell scripts
+that are designed to help smoke-test an installation of qpdf. They
+were designed to be used with debian's `autopkgtest
+<https://wiki.debian.org/ContinuousIntegration/autopkgtest>`__
+framework but can be used by others. Please see
+:file:`pkg-test/README.md` in the source distribution for details.
+
 .. _packaging-doc:
 
 Packaging Documentation
diff --git a/pkg-test/CMakeLists.txt b/pkg-test/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..36257f22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg-test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)
+project(qpdf-version LANGUAGES CXX)
+find_package(qpdf)
+add_executable(qpdf-version qpdf-version.cc)
+target_link_libraries(qpdf-version qpdf::libqpdf)
diff --git a/pkg-test/README.md b/pkg-test/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..95f7ecb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg-test/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Tests for installed packages
+
+The files in this directory are called by autopkgtest in the debian package but can be used by any packager to verify installed packages. Each test-* script should be run from the top of the source tree and takes an empty directory as its single argument. The test passes if the script exits with a zero exit status. Note that these tests write to stderr because they use set -x in the shell.
+
+On a GNU/Linux system, you can run `./pkg-test/run-all` from the top-level directory to run all the tests. For example:
+
+```
+cmake -S . -B build
+cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
+DESTDIR=/tmp/inst cmake --install build
+env PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/tmp/inst/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig \
+    CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/tmp/inst/usr/local \
+   ./pkg-test/run-all
+```
diff --git a/pkg-test/qpdf-version.cc b/pkg-test/qpdf-version.cc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..63fd3308
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg-test/qpdf-version.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#include <qpdf/QPDF.hh>
+#include <iostream>
+
+int main() {
+    std::cout << QPDF::QPDFVersion() << std::endl;
+    return 0;
+}
diff --git a/pkg-test/run-all b/pkg-test/run-all
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..e68044d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg-test/run-all
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -e
+
+cd $(dirname $0)/..
+
+CUR_TEMP=
+function clean_temp() {
+    if [[ $CUR_TEMP =~ .*\.qpdf-test$ && -d $CUR_TEMP ]]; then
+        rm -rf $CUR_TEMP
+    fi
+}
+
+trap clean_temp EXIT
+
+declare -a any_failed
+for i in pkg-test/test-*; do
+    if [[ $i =~ .*~ ]]; then
+        continue
+    fi
+    CUR_TEMP=$(mktemp --suffix=.qpdf-test -d)
+    printf "\n\n\e[40m\e[1;35m*** RUNNING $i ***\e[0m\n\n\n"
+    if ! $i $CUR_TEMP; then
+        any_failed=(${any_failed[*]} $i)
+    fi
+    clean_temp
+done
+
+if [[ ${#any_failed} != 0 ]]; then
+    for i in ${any_failed[*]}; do
+        echo 1>&2 "FAILED: $i"
+    done
+    exit 2
+fi
+printf "\n\n\e[40m\e[1;35m*** ALL TESTS PASSED ***\e[0m\n"
diff --git a/pkg-test/test-cli b/pkg-test/test-cli
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..6b1c1d88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg-test/test-cli
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Test that the installed qpdf CLI works. Requires the CLI and runtime
+# libraries.
+#
+set -ex
+
+TMP=$1
+if [ ! -d "$TMP" ]; then
+    echo 1>&2 "Usage: $0 tmp-dir"
+    exit 2
+fi
+
+qpdf --version
+qpdf --help
+qpdf --check qpdf/qtest/qpdf/minimal.pdf
+qpdf qpdf/qtest/qpdf/minimal.pdf --encrypt u o 256 -- $TMP/out.pdf
+qpdf --check --password=u $TMP/out.pdf
diff --git a/pkg-test/test-cmake b/pkg-test/test-cmake
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..4fd5846b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg-test/test-cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Test that the installed qpdf development packages enable a qpdf
+# application to be build with information from pkg-config. Requires
+# pkg-config as well as libqpdf development dependencies.
+#
+set -ex
+
+TMP=$1
+if [ ! -d "$TMP" ]; then
+    echo 1>&2 "Usage: $0 tmp-dir"
+    exit 2
+fi
+cp pkg-test/qpdf-version.cc pkg-test/CMakeLists.txt $TMP
+cd $TMP
+cmake -S . -B build
+cmake --build build
+./build/qpdf-version
diff --git a/pkg-test/test-pkg-config b/pkg-test/test-pkg-config
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..c516bed6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg-test/test-pkg-config
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Test that the installed qpdf development packages enable a qpdf
+# application to be build with cmake using qpdf's cmake package
+# information. Requires cmake as well as libqpdf development
+# dependencies.
+#
+set -ex
+
+TMP=$1
+if [ ! -d "$TMP" ]; then
+    echo 1>&2 "Usage: $0 tmp-dir"
+    exit 2
+fi
+
+cp pkg-test/qpdf-version.cc $TMP
+cd $TMP
+g++ qpdf-version.cc -o qpdf-version \
+    $(pkg-config libqpdf --cflags) \
+    $(pkg-config libqpdf --libs)
+./qpdf-version