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+# Gophercloud Acceptance tests
+
+The purpose of these acceptance tests is to validate that SDK features meet
+the requirements of a contract - to consumers, other parts of the library, and
+to a remote API.
+
+> **Note:** Because every test will be run against a real API endpoint, you
+> may incur bandwidth and service charges for all the resource usage. These
+> tests *should* remove their remote products automatically. However, there may
+> be certain cases where this does not happen; always double-check to make sure
+> you have no stragglers left behind.
+
+### Step 1. Set environment variables
+
+A lot of tests rely on environment variables for configuration - so you will need 
+to set them before running the suite. If you're testing against pure OpenStack APIs,
+you can download a file that contains all of these variables for you: just visit 
+the `project/access_and_security` page in your control panel and click the "Download 
+OpenStack RC File" button at the top right. For all other providers, you will need 
+to set them manually.
+
+#### Authentication
+
+|Name|Description|
+|---|---|
+|`OS_USERNAME`|Your API username|
+|`OS_PASSWORD`|Your API password|
+|`OS_AUTH_URL`|The identity URL you need to authenticate|
+|`OS_TENANT_NAME`|Your API tenant name|
+|`OS_TENANT_ID`|Your API tenant ID|
+
+#### General
+
+|Name|Description|
+|---|---|
+|`OS_REGION_NAME`|The region you want your resources to reside in|
+
+#### Compute
+
+|Name|Description|
+|---|---|
+|`OS_IMAGE_ID`|The ID of the image your want your server to be based on|
+|`OS_FLAVOR_ID`|The ID of the flavor you want your server to be based on|
+|`OS_FLAVOR_ID_RESIZE`|The ID of the flavor you want your server to be resized to|
+
+### 2. Run the test suite
+
+From any directory, run:
+
+```
+go test -v -tags acceptance github.com/rackspace/gophercloud/...
+```
+
+Alternatively, you can execute the above from your nested git folder (i.e. the
+  workspace visible when browsing the Github repository) by replacing
+  `github.com/rackspace/gophercloud/...` with `./...`