diff --git a/release/release-unix.pl b/release/release-unix.pl
index f208fe2ea63c57de96898363f9a9acbf84aa9cd1..cfbb10cc153cc8bf7085709136f2f81fbb53451f 100755
--- a/release/release-unix.pl
+++ b/release/release-unix.pl
@@ -466,7 +466,13 @@ sub verify_tar {
 
     print "Running make\n";
     system ("make > /dev/null");
-    die "Error compiling tar file" unless ((-x "tools/fstools/fls") && (-x "tests/read_apis"));
+    die "Error compiling tar file" unless (-x "tools/fstools/fls");
+
+    print "Testing Test\n";
+    chdir "tests" or die "Error changing directories to test";
+    system ("make check > /dev/null");
+    die "Error compiling tests" unless (-x "read_apis");
+    chdir "..";
 
     print "Building Java JAR\n";
     chdir "bindings/java" or die "Error changing directories to java";
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index 072e6dc3254bad44ae3652a5cabf46f6a1fb66b2..dd4f75caefaf7960c2c6e91a09ff20f34190ae36 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 AM_CPPFLAGS = -I.. -I$(srcdir)/.. -Wall $(PTHREAD_CFLAGS)
 LDADD = ../tsk/libtsk.la
 LDFLAGS += -static $(PTHREAD_LIBS)
-EXTRA_DIST = .indent.pro 
+EXTRA_DIST = .indent.pro runtests.sh
 
 check_SCRIPTS = runtests.sh