new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/util.py
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+import os
+import popen2
+
+FIXTURES = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)),
+                        'fixtures')
+
+def load_svndump_fixture(path, fixture_name):
+    '''Loads an svnadmin dump into a fresh repo at path, which should not
+    already exist.
+    '''
+    os.spawnvp(os.P_WAIT, 'svnadmin', ['svnadmin', 'create', path,])
+    proc = popen2.Popen4(['svnadmin', 'load', path,])
+    inp = open(os.path.join(FIXTURES, fixture_name))
+    proc.tochild.write(inp.read())
+    proc.tochild.close()
+    proc.wait()