diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..37410a3677
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.coveragerc
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# .coveragerc to control coverage.py
+[run]
+branch = True
+
+[report]
+# Regexes for lines to exclude from consideration
+exclude_lines =
+    # Have to re-enable the standard pragma
+    pragma: no cover
+
+    # Don't complain about missing debug-only code:
+    def __repr__
+    if self\.debug
+
+    # Don't complain if tests don't hit defensive assertion code:
+    raise AssertionError
+    raise NotImplementedError
+
+    # Don't complain if non-runnable code isn't run:
+    if 0:
+    if False:
+    if __name__ == .__main__.:
+
+ignore_errors = True
+
+[html]
+directory = htmlcov
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 4b97de5d50..643e5d9b03 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,3 +9,5 @@
 /share/spack/dotkit
 /share/spack/modules
 /TAGS
+/htmlcov
+.coverage
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index ab379be486..4207f8d08b 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -6,21 +6,32 @@ python:
 # Use new Travis infrastructure (Docker can't sudo yet)
 sudo: false
 
-# No need to install any deps.
-install: true
+# Install coveralls to obtain code coverage
+install:
+  - "pip install coveralls"
+  - "pip install pep8"
 
 before_install:
   # Need this for the git tests to succeed.
   - git config --global user.email "spack@example.com"
   - git config --global user.name "Test User"
+  # Need this to be able to compute the list of changed files
+  - git fetch origin develop:develop
 
 script:
   - . share/spack/setup-env.sh
-  - spack test
+  # Run unit tests with code coverage
+  - coverage run --source=lib --omit=lib/spack/spack/test/*,lib/spack/env/*,lib/spack/docs/* bin/spack test
+  # Checks if the file that have been changed are pep8 conformant
+  - CHANGED_PYTHON_FILES=`git diff develop... --name-only | perl -ne 'print if /\.py/g'`
+  - if [[ ${CHANGED_PYTHON_FILES} ]] ; then pep8 --max-line-length=120 ${CHANGED_PYTHON_FILES} ; fi
+
+after_success:
+  - coveralls
 
 notifications:
   email:
     recipients:
-      - tgamblin@llnl.gov
+      - massimiliano.culpo@gmail.com
     on_success: change
     on_failure: always