diff -r 058bb3dc685f -r 0b59724cb3f2 cubicweb/devtools/test/unittest_devctl.py
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/cubicweb/devtools/test/unittest_devctl.py	Sat Jan 16 13:48:51 2016 +0100
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# copyright 2003-2015 LOGILAB S.A. (Paris, FRANCE), all rights reserved.
+# contact http://www.logilab.fr/ -- mailto:contact@logilab.fr
+#
+# This file is part of CubicWeb.
+#
+# CubicWeb is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+# terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
+# Software Foundation, either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option)
+# any later version.
+#
+# CubicWeb is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
+# FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more
+# details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along
+# with CubicWeb.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+"""unit tests for cubicweb-ctl commands from devtools"""
+
+import os.path as osp
+import sys
+import tempfile
+import shutil
+from subprocess import Popen, PIPE, STDOUT
+from unittest import TestCase
+
+
+class CubicWebCtlTC(TestCase):
+    """test case for devtools commands"""
+
+    def test_newcube(self):
+        cwctl = osp.abspath(osp.join(osp.dirname(__file__),
+                                     '../../../bin/cubicweb-ctl'))
+
+        tmpdir = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix="temp-cwctl-newcube")
+        try:
+            cmd = [sys.executable, cwctl, 'newcube',
+                   '--directory', tmpdir, 'foo']
+            proc = Popen(cmd, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT)
+            stdout, _ = proc.communicate(b'short_desc\n')
+        finally:
+            shutil.rmtree(tmpdir, ignore_errors=True)
+        self.assertEqual(proc.returncode, 0, msg=stdout)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    from unittest import main
+    main()