8 files changed, 79 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a725725235..3b2252ad8a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 *.pyc
 .*.swp
 *~
+*.lock
 
 .DS_Store
 _trial_temp/
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.rst b/CONTRIBUTING.rst
index f9de78a460..6ef7d48dc7 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.rst
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.rst
@@ -30,12 +30,28 @@ use github's pull request workflow to review the contribution, and either ask
 you to make any refinements needed or merge it and make them ourselves. The
 changes will then land on master when we next do a release.
 
-We use `Jenkins <http://matrix.org/jenkins>`_ and
-`Travis <https://travis-ci.org/matrix-org/synapse>`_ for continuous
-integration. All pull requests to synapse get automatically tested by Travis;
-the Jenkins builds require an adminstrator to start them. If your change
-breaks the build, this will be shown in github, so please keep an eye on the
-pull request for feedback.
+We use `CircleCI <https://circleci.com/gh/matrix-org>`_ and `Travis CI 
+<https://travis-ci.org/matrix-org/synapse>`_ for continuous integration. All
+pull requests to synapse get automatically tested by Travis and CircleCI.
+If your change breaks the build, this will be shown in GitHub, so please
+keep an eye on the pull request for feedback.
+
+To run unit tests in a local development environment, you can use:
+
+- ``tox -e py27`` (requires tox to be installed by ``pip install tox``) for
+  SQLite-backed Synapse on Python 2.7.
+- ``tox -e py35`` for SQLite-backed Synapse on Python 3.5.
+- ``tox -e py36`` for SQLite-backed Synapse on Python 3.6.
+- ``tox -e py27-postgres`` for PostgreSQL-backed Synapse on Python 2.7
+  (requires a running local PostgreSQL with access to create databases).
+- ``./test_postgresql.sh`` for PostgreSQL-backed Synapse on Python 2.7
+  (requires Docker). Entirely self-contained, recommended if you don't want to
+  set up PostgreSQL yourself.
+
+Docker images are available for running the integration tests (SyTest) locally,
+see the `documentation in the SyTest repo
+<https://github.com/matrix-org/sytest/blob/develop/docker/README.md>`_ for more
+information.
 
 Code style
 ~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -77,7 +93,8 @@ AUTHORS.rst file for the project in question. Please feel free to include a
 change to AUTHORS.rst in your pull request to list yourself and a short
 description of the area(s) you've worked on. Also, we sometimes have swag to
 give away to contributors - if you feel that Matrix-branded apparel is missing
-from your life, please mail us your shipping address to matrix at matrix.org and we'll try to fix it :)
+from your life, please mail us your shipping address to matrix at matrix.org and
+we'll try to fix it :)
 
 Sign off
 ~~~~~~~~
@@ -144,4 +161,9 @@ flag to ``git commit``, which uses the name and email set in your
 Conclusion
 ~~~~~~~~~~
 
-That's it!  Matrix is a very open and collaborative project as you might expect given our obsession with open communication.  If we're going to successfully matrix together all the fragmented communication technologies out there we are reliant on contributions and collaboration from the community to do so.  So please get involved - and we hope you have as much fun hacking on Matrix as we do!
+That's it!  Matrix is a very open and collaborative project as you might expect
+given our obsession with open communication.  If we're going to successfully
+matrix together all the fragmented communication technologies out there we are
+reliant on contributions and collaboration from the community to do so.  So
+please get involved - and we hope you have as much fun hacking on Matrix as we
+do!
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index e0826ba544..47ae5a77b9 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ exclude jenkins*.sh
 exclude jenkins*
 exclude Dockerfile
 exclude .dockerignore
+exclude test_postgresql.sh
 recursive-exclude jenkins *.sh
 
 include pyproject.toml
diff --git a/changelog.d/3699.misc b/changelog.d/3699.misc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..437efbd98f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/3699.misc
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Unit tests can now be run under PostgreSQL in Docker using 
+``test_postgresql.sh``.
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile-pgtests b/docker/Dockerfile-pgtests
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7da8eeb9eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile-pgtests
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# Use the Sytest image that comes with a lot of the build dependencies
+# pre-installed
+FROM matrixdotorg/sytest:latest
+
+# The Sytest image doesn't come with python, so install that
+RUN apt-get -qq install -y python python-dev python-pip
+
+# We need tox to run the tests in run_pg_tests.sh
+RUN pip install tox
+
+ADD run_pg_tests.sh /pg_tests.sh
+ENTRYPOINT /pg_tests.sh
diff --git a/docker/run_pg_tests.sh b/docker/run_pg_tests.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..e77424c41a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/run_pg_tests.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# This script runs the PostgreSQL tests inside a Docker container. It expects
+# the relevant source files to be mounted into /src (done automatically by the
+# caller script). It will set up the database, run it, and then use the tox
+# configuration to run the tests.
+
+set -e
+
+# Set PGUSER so Synapse's tests know what user to connect to the database with
+export PGUSER=postgres
+
+# Initialise & start the database
+su -c '/usr/lib/postgresql/9.6/bin/initdb -D /var/lib/postgresql/data -E "UTF-8" --lc-collate="en_US.UTF-8" --lc-ctype="en_US.UTF-8" --username=postgres' postgres
+su -c '/usr/lib/postgresql/9.6/bin/pg_ctl -w -D /var/lib/postgresql/data start' postgres
+
+# Run the tests
+cd /src
+export TRIAL_FLAGS="-j 4"
+tox --workdir=/tmp -e py27-postgres
diff --git a/test_postgresql.sh b/test_postgresql.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..1ffcaabd31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test_postgresql.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# This script builds the Docker image to run the PostgreSQL tests, and then runs
+# the tests.
+
+set -e
+
+# Build, and tag
+docker build docker/ -f docker/Dockerfile-pgtests -t synapsepgtests
+
+# Run, mounting the current directory into /src
+docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd)\:/src synapsepgtests
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 80ac9324df..88875c3318 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ envlist = packaging, py27, py36, pep8, check_isort
 [base]
 deps =
     coverage
-    Twisted>=15.1
+    Twisted>=17.1
     mock
     python-subunit
     junitxml