diff --git a/debian/tests/control b/debian/tests/control
index 456bc583a1c5631815f1b76661298eeb35b60ebf..66c5f59a4a4abb5f5c4d2e3b66cde41f2165ac8c 100644
--- a/debian/tests/control
+++ b/debian/tests/control
@@ -4,3 +4,7 @@ Restrictions: needs-root
 Tests: libfwupd-dev
 Depends: build-essential, libfwupd-dev, pkg-config
 Restrictions: allow-stderr, superficial
+
+Tests: libfwupdplugin-dev
+Depends: build-essential, libfwupdplugin-dev, pkg-config
+Restrictions: allow-stderr, superficial
diff --git a/debian/tests/libfwupdplugin-dev b/debian/tests/libfwupdplugin-dev
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a1b62d1e1052dbdb76855c49fb3bf2a3bedb4dec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/tests/libfwupdplugin-dev
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Copyright 2020 Collabora Ltd.
+# Copyright 2021 Simon McVittie
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
+
+set -eux
+
+WORKDIR="$(mktemp -d)"
+trap 'cd /; rm -fr "$WORKDIR"' 0 INT QUIT ABRT PIPE TERM
+
+if [ -n "${DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE:-}" ]; then
+    CROSS_COMPILE="$DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE-"
+else
+    CROSS_COMPILE=
+fi
+
+CC="${CROSS_COMPILE}gcc"
+PKG_CONFIG="${CROSS_COMPILE}pkg-config"
+
+cd "$WORKDIR"
+
+cat > trivial.c <<'EOF'
+#undef NDEBUG
+#include <assert.h>
+
+#include <fwupdplugin.h>
+
+int main (void)
+{
+    assert (fu_common_vercmp ("1.0", "2.1") < 0);
+    return 0;
+}
+EOF
+
+# Deliberately word-splitting pkg-config's output:
+# shellcheck disable=SC2046
+"${CC}" -otrivial trivial.c $("${PKG_CONFIG}" --cflags --libs fwupdplugin)
+./trivial