--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/tests/run_doctests.py	Tue Jan 27 14:01:52 2015 -0800
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+"""
+doctest runner
+"""
+
+import doctest
+import os
+import sys
+from optparse import OptionParser
+
+
+def run_tests(raise_on_error=False, report_first=False):
+
+    # add results here
+    results = {}
+
+    # doctest arguments
+    directory = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+    extraglobs = {'here': directory}
+    doctest_args = dict(extraglobs=extraglobs, raise_on_error=raise_on_error)
+    doctest_args['optionsflags'] = doctest.ELLIPSIS
+    if report_first:
+        doctest_args['optionflags'] |= doctest.REPORT_ONLY_FIRST_FAILURE
+
+    # gather tests
+    tests =  [test for test in os.listdir(directory)
+              if test.endswith('.txt')]
+
+    # run the tests
+    for test in tests:
+        try:
+            results[test] = doctest.testfile(test, **doctest_args)
+        except doctest.DocTestFailure, failure:
+            raise
+        except doctest.UnexpectedException, failure:
+            raise failure.exc_info[0], failure.exc_info[1], failure.exc_info[2]
+
+    return results
+
+def main(args=sys.argv[1:]):
+
+    # parse command line args
+    parser = OptionParser(description=__doc__)
+    parser.add_option('--raise', dest='raise_on_error',
+                      default=False, action='store_true',
+                      help="raise on first error")
+    parser.add_option('--report-first', dest='report_first',
+                      default=False, action='store_true',
+                      help="report the first error only (all tests will still run)")
+    options, args = parser.parse_args(args)
+
+    # run the tests
+    results = run_tests(**options.__dict__)
+    if sum([i.failed for i in results.values()]):
+        sys.exit(1) # error
+                
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()
+