diff --git a/Lib/distutils/tests/test_build.py b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_build.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6bca27ee06f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/distutils/tests/test_build.py
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+"""Tests for distutils.command.build."""
+import unittest
+import os
+import sys
+
+from distutils.command.build import build
+from distutils.tests import support
+from distutils.util import get_platform
+
+class BuildTestCase(support.TempdirManager,
+                    support.LoggingSilencer,
+                    unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def test_finalize_options(self):
+        pkg_dir, dist = self.create_dist()
+        cmd = build(dist)
+        cmd.finalize_options()
+
+        # if not specified, plat_name gets the current platform
+        self.assertEquals(cmd.plat_name, get_platform())
+
+        # build_purelib is build + lib
+        wanted = os.path.join(cmd.build_base, 'lib')
+        self.assertEquals(cmd.build_purelib, wanted)
+
+        # build_platlib is 'build/lib.platform-x.x[-pydebug]'
+        # examples:
+        #   build/lib.macosx-10.3-i386-2.7
+        plat_spec = '.%s-%s' % (cmd.plat_name, sys.version[0:3])
+        if hasattr(sys, 'gettotalrefcount'):
+            self.assertTrue(cmd.build_platlib.endswith('-pydebug'))
+            plat_spec += '-pydebug'
+        wanted = os.path.join(cmd.build_base, 'lib' + plat_spec)
+        self.assertEquals(cmd.build_platlib, wanted)
+
+        # by default, build_lib = build_purelib
+        self.assertEquals(cmd.build_lib, cmd.build_purelib)
+
+        # build_temp is build/temp.<plat>
+        wanted = os.path.join(cmd.build_base, 'temp' + plat_spec)
+        self.assertEquals(cmd.build_temp, wanted)
+
+        # build_scripts is build/scripts-x.x
+        wanted = os.path.join(cmd.build_base, 'scripts-' +  sys.version[0:3])
+        self.assertEquals(cmd.build_scripts, wanted)
+
+        # executable is os.path.normpath(sys.executable)
+        self.assertEquals(cmd.executable, os.path.normpath(sys.executable))
+
+def test_suite():
+    return unittest.makeSuite(BuildTestCase)
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main(defaultTest="test_suite")