diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/dssp/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/dssp/package.py
index 1cb566f8ba..2128467714 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/dssp/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/dssp/package.py
@@ -21,6 +21,16 @@ class Dssp(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('m4',       type='build')
     depends_on('boost@1.48:')
 
+    # pdb data download.
+    # 1ALK.pdb - PDB (protein data bank) : https://www.rcsb.org/
+    resource(
+        name="pdb_data",
+        url="https://files.rcsb.org/download/1ALK.pdb",
+        sha256="99f4cd7ab63b35d64eacc85dc1491af5a03a1a0a89f2c9aadfb705c591b4b6c9",
+        expand=False,
+        placement='pdb'
+    )
+
     def configure_args(self):
         args = [
             "--with-boost=%s" % self.spec['boost'].prefix]
@@ -30,3 +40,11 @@ def configure_args(self):
     def edit(self):
         makefile = FileFilter(join_path(self.stage.source_path, 'Makefile'))
         makefile.filter('.*-Werror .*', '                    -Wno-error \\')
+
+    @run_after('install')
+    def cache_test_sources(self):
+        self.cache_extra_test_sources('pdb')
+
+    def test(self):
+        pdb_path  = join_path(self.install_test_root, 'pdb')
+        self.run_test('mkdssp', options=['1ALK.pdb', '1alk.dssp'], work_dir=pdb_path)