diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index e43a89e453a..165f8923c0e 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -19,9 +19,12 @@ env:
     - CONFIG=opt TEST=python
     - CONFIG=gcov TEST=c
     - CONFIG=gcov TEST=c++
+    - USE_GCC=4.4 CONFIG=opt TEST=build
+    - USE_GCC=4.5 CONFIG=opt TEST=build
 script:
   - rvm use $RUBY_VERSION
   - gem install bundler
+  - if [ ! -z "$USE_GCC" ] ; then export CC=gcc-$USE_GCC ; export CXX=g++-$USE_GCC ; fi
   - ./tools/run_tests/run_tests.py -l $TEST -t -j 16 -c $CONFIG -s 4.0
 after_success:
   - if [ "$CONFIG" = "gcov" ] ; then coveralls --exclude third_party --exclude gens -b. --gcov-options '\-p' ; fi
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
index a132ef45413..3cf6ddf2623 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
+++ b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
@@ -224,6 +224,24 @@ class CSharpLanguage(object):
   def __str__(self):
     return 'csharp'
 
+class Build(object):
+
+  def test_specs(self, config, travis):
+    return []
+
+  def make_targets(self):
+    return ['all']
+
+  def build_steps(self):
+    return []
+
+  def supports_multi_config(self):
+    return True
+
+  def __str__(self):
+    return self.make_target
+
+
 # different configurations we can run under
 _CONFIGS = {
     'dbg': SimpleConfig('dbg'),
@@ -248,7 +266,8 @@ _LANGUAGES = {
     'php': PhpLanguage(),
     'python': PythonLanguage(),
     'ruby': RubyLanguage(),
-    'csharp': CSharpLanguage()
+    'csharp': CSharpLanguage(),
+    'build': Build(),
     }
 
 # parse command line