diff --git a/provisioner/shell-local/communicator_test.go b/provisioner/shell-local/communicator_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..90402324b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/provisioner/shell-local/communicator_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package shell
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"runtime"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/mitchellh/packer/packer"
+)
+
+func TestCommunicator_impl(t *testing.T) {
+	var _ packer.Communicator = new(Communicator)
+}
+
+func TestCommunicator(t *testing.T) {
+	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
+		t.Skip("windows not supported for this test")
+		return
+	}
+
+	c := &Communicator{
+		ExecuteCommand: []string{"/bin/sh", "-c", "{{.Command}}"},
+	}
+
+	var buf bytes.Buffer
+	cmd := &packer.RemoteCmd{
+		Command: "echo foo",
+		Stdout:  &buf,
+	}
+
+	if err := c.Start(cmd); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	cmd.Wait()
+
+	if cmd.ExitStatus != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("err bad exit status: %d", cmd.ExitStatus)
+	}
+
+	if strings.TrimSpace(buf.String()) != "foo" {
+		t.Fatalf("bad: %s", buf.String())
+	}
+}