diff --git a/docs/internals/contributing.txt b/docs/internals/contributing.txt
index a257e67..8258c5e 100644
--- a/docs/internals/contributing.txt
+++ b/docs/internals/contributing.txt
@@ -858,6 +858,7 @@ dependencies:
     *  setuptools_
     *  memcached_, plus the either the python-memcached_ or cmemcached_
        Python binding
+    *  gettext_ (:ref:`gettext_on_windows`)
 
 If you want to test the memcached cache backend, you will also need to define
 a :setting:`CACHE_BACKEND` setting that points at your memcached instance.
@@ -873,6 +874,7 @@ associated tests will be skipped.
 .. _memcached: http://www.danga.com/memcached/
 .. _python-memcached: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-memcached/
 .. _cmemcached: http://gijsbert.org/cmemcache/index.html
+.. _gettext: http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html
 
 To run a subset of the unit tests, append the names of the test modules to the
 ``runtests.py`` command line. See the list of directories in
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/makemessages/extraction.py b/tests/regressiontests/makemessages/extraction.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b4fa1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/makemessages/extraction.py
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+import os
+import re
+import shutil
+from django.test import TestCase
+from django.core import management
+
+LOCALE='de'
+
+class ExtractorTests(TestCase):
+
+    PO_FILE='locale/%s/LC_MESSAGES/django.po' % LOCALE
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self._cwd = os.getcwd()
+        self.test_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+
+    def _rmrf(self, dname):
+        if os.path.commonprefix([self.test_dir, os.path.abspath(dname)]) != self.test_dir:
+            return
+        shutil.rmtree(dname)
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
+        try:
+            self._rmrf('locale/%s' % LOCALE)
+        except OSError:
+            pass
+        os.chdir(self._cwd)
+
+    def assertMsgId(self, msgid, s):
+        return self.assert_(re.search('^msgid "%s"' % msgid, s, re.MULTILINE))
+
+    def assertNotMsgId(self, msgid, s):
+        return self.assert_(not re.search('^msgid "%s"' % msgid, s, re.MULTILINE))
+
+
+class JavascriptExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
+
+    PO_FILE='locale/%s/LC_MESSAGES/djangojs.po' % LOCALE
+
+    def test_javascript_literals(self):
+        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
+        management.call_command('makemessages', domain='djangojs', locale=LOCALE, verbosity=0)
+        self.assert_(os.path.exists(self.PO_FILE))
+        po_contents = open(self.PO_FILE, 'r').read()
+        self.assertMsgId('This literal should be included.', po_contents)
+        self.assertMsgId('This one as well.', po_contents)
+
+
+class IgnoredExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
+
+    def test_ignore_option(self):
+        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
+        management.call_command('makemessages', locale=LOCALE, verbosity=0, ignore_patterns=['ignore_dir/*'])
+        self.assert_(os.path.exists(self.PO_FILE))
+        po_contents = open(self.PO_FILE, 'r').read()
+        self.assertMsgId('This literal should be included.', po_contents)
+        self.assertNotMsgId('This should be ignored.', po_contents)
+
+
+class SymlinkExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self._cwd = os.getcwd()
+        self.test_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+        self.symlinked_dir = os.path.join(self.test_dir, 'templates_symlinked')
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        super(SymlinkExtractorTests, self).tearDown()
+        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
+        try:
+            os.remove(self.symlinked_dir)
+        except OSError:
+            pass
+        os.chdir(self._cwd)
+
+    def test_symlink(self):
+        if hasattr(os, 'symlink'):
+            if os.path.exists(self.symlinked_dir):
+                self.assert_(os.path.islink(self.symlinked_dir))
+            else:
+                os.symlink(os.path.join(self.test_dir, 'templates'), self.symlinked_dir)
+            os.chdir(self.test_dir)
+            management.call_command('makemessages', locale=LOCALE, verbosity=0, symlinks=True)
+            self.assert_(os.path.exists(self.PO_FILE))
+            po_contents = open(self.PO_FILE, 'r').read()
+            self.assertMsgId('This literal should be included.', po_contents)
+            self.assert_('templates_symlinked/test.html' in po_contents)
+
+
+class CopyPluralFormsExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
+
+    def test_copy_plural_forms(self):
+        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
+        management.call_command('makemessages', locale=LOCALE, verbosity=0)
+        self.assert_(os.path.exists(self.PO_FILE))
+        po_contents = open(self.PO_FILE, 'r').read()
+        self.assert_('Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1)' in po_contents)
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/makemessages/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/makemessages/tests.py
index 4b4fa1b..e2b6122 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/makemessages/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/makemessages/tests.py
@@ -1,98 +1,30 @@
 import os
-import re
-import shutil
-from django.test import TestCase
-from django.core import management
 
-LOCALE='de'
-
-class ExtractorTests(TestCase):
-
-    PO_FILE='locale/%s/LC_MESSAGES/django.po' % LOCALE
-
-    def setUp(self):
-        self._cwd = os.getcwd()
-        self.test_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
-
-    def _rmrf(self, dname):
-        if os.path.commonprefix([self.test_dir, os.path.abspath(dname)]) != self.test_dir:
-            return
-        shutil.rmtree(dname)
-
-    def tearDown(self):
-        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
-        try:
-            self._rmrf('locale/%s' % LOCALE)
-        except OSError:
-            pass
-        os.chdir(self._cwd)
-
-    def assertMsgId(self, msgid, s):
-        return self.assert_(re.search('^msgid "%s"' % msgid, s, re.MULTILINE))
-
-    def assertNotMsgId(self, msgid, s):
-        return self.assert_(not re.search('^msgid "%s"' % msgid, s, re.MULTILINE))
-
-
-class JavascriptExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
-
-    PO_FILE='locale/%s/LC_MESSAGES/djangojs.po' % LOCALE
-
-    def test_javascript_literals(self):
-        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
-        management.call_command('makemessages', domain='djangojs', locale=LOCALE, verbosity=0)
-        self.assert_(os.path.exists(self.PO_FILE))
-        po_contents = open(self.PO_FILE, 'r').read()
-        self.assertMsgId('This literal should be included.', po_contents)
-        self.assertMsgId('This one as well.', po_contents)
-
-
-class IgnoredExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
-
-    def test_ignore_option(self):
-        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
-        management.call_command('makemessages', locale=LOCALE, verbosity=0, ignore_patterns=['ignore_dir/*'])
-        self.assert_(os.path.exists(self.PO_FILE))
-        po_contents = open(self.PO_FILE, 'r').read()
-        self.assertMsgId('This literal should be included.', po_contents)
-        self.assertNotMsgId('This should be ignored.', po_contents)
-
-
-class SymlinkExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
-
-    def setUp(self):
-        self._cwd = os.getcwd()
-        self.test_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
-        self.symlinked_dir = os.path.join(self.test_dir, 'templates_symlinked')
-
-    def tearDown(self):
-        super(SymlinkExtractorTests, self).tearDown()
-        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
-        try:
-            os.remove(self.symlinked_dir)
-        except OSError:
-            pass
-        os.chdir(self._cwd)
-
-    def test_symlink(self):
-        if hasattr(os, 'symlink'):
-            if os.path.exists(self.symlinked_dir):
-                self.assert_(os.path.islink(self.symlinked_dir))
-            else:
-                os.symlink(os.path.join(self.test_dir, 'templates'), self.symlinked_dir)
-            os.chdir(self.test_dir)
-            management.call_command('makemessages', locale=LOCALE, verbosity=0, symlinks=True)
-            self.assert_(os.path.exists(self.PO_FILE))
-            po_contents = open(self.PO_FILE, 'r').read()
-            self.assertMsgId('This literal should be included.', po_contents)
-            self.assert_('templates_symlinked/test.html' in po_contents)
-
-
-class CopyPluralFormsExtractorTests(ExtractorTests):
-
-    def test_copy_plural_forms(self):
-        os.chdir(self.test_dir)
-        management.call_command('makemessages', locale=LOCALE, verbosity=0)
-        self.assert_(os.path.exists(self.PO_FILE))
-        po_contents = open(self.PO_FILE, 'r').read()
-        self.assert_('Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=(n != 1)' in po_contents)
+def find_command(cmd, path=None, pathext=None):
+    if path is None:
+        path = os.environ.get('PATH', []).split(os.pathsep)
+    if isinstance(path, basestring):
+        path = [path]
+    # check if there are funny path extensions for executables, e.g. Windows
+    if pathext is None:
+        pathext = os.environ.get('PATHEXT', '.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD').split(os.pathsep)
+    # don't use extensions if the command ends with one of them
+    for ext in pathext:
+        if cmd.endswith(ext):
+            pathext = ['']
+            break
+    # check if we find the command on PATH
+    for p in path:
+        f = os.path.join(p, cmd)
+        if os.path.isfile(f):
+            return f
+        for ext in pathext:
+            fext = f + ext
+            if os.path.isfile(fext):
+                return fext
+    return None
+
+# checks if it can find xgettext on the PATH and
+# imports the extraction tests if yes
+if find_command('xgettext'):
+    from extraction import *
