diff --git a/pkgs/tools/archivers/cpio/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/archivers/cpio/default.nix
index da3a4a2114c9..0fe726f09977 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/archivers/cpio/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/archivers/cpio/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,13 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, fetchurl }:
+{ lib
+, stdenv
+, fetchurl
+
+# for passthru.tests
+, git
+, libguestfs
+, nixosTests
+, rpm
+}:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   pname = "cpio";
@@ -17,6 +26,12 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
+  passthru.tests = {
+    inherit libguestfs rpm;
+    git = git.tests.withInstallCheck;
+    initrd = nixosTests.systemd-initrd-simple;
+  };
+
   meta = with lib; {
     homepage = "https://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/";
     description = "A program to create or extract from cpio archives";