diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bc8669c..20decae 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -6,3 +6,15 @@ all: puppet-modules.tar.gz
 puppet-modules.tar.gz: $(MODULES)
 	umask 022 ; tar zcvf $@ --owner=root --group=root \
 		--mode g-w,o=g --exclude=.git $^
+
+check:
+	@which puppet > /dev/null 2>&1 || ( \
+		echo "puppet not installed, cannot perform syntax checking" \
+		1>&2 ; exit 1 )
+	@for name in `git diff --name-only`; do \
+		echo $${name} | egrep '\.pp$$' > /dev/null || continue ; \
+		errors="`puppet --color=false --parseonly --ignoreimport $${name}`" ; \
+		[ $$? -eq 0 ] && continue ; \
+		echo "syntax check failed on $${name}" 1>&2 ; \
+		echo "  $${errors}" 1>&2 ; \
+	done
\ No newline at end of file