diff --git a/tests/repr.py b/tests/repr.py
new file mode 100755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/repr.py
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# Copyright 2009 Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com> and others
+#
+# This software may be used and distributed according to the terms of the
+# GNU General Public License version 2, incorporated herein by reference.
+
+"""prints repr(sys.stdin) but preserves newlines in input"""
+
+import sys
+print repr(sys.stdin.read())[1:-1].replace('\\n', '\n'),