diff --git a/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/README b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/README
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b31f47077
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/README
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+The ROOT script samplehists.C creates three test files
+
+- basic_lz4.root with 5 typical histograms, one of each data type
+  - compressed with the default LZ4 compression
+- advanced_zlib.root with two cycles of the same histogram
+  - variable bin borders
+  - compressed with the old default ZLIB compression
+- broken_basic.root the same as basic_lz4.root but only the first 3kBytes
+  - test ability to read broken files
diff --git a/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/advanced_zlib.root b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/advanced_zlib.root
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..197c56365
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/advanced_zlib.root differ
diff --git a/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/basic_lz4.root b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/basic_lz4.root
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c97867178
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/basic_lz4.root differ
diff --git a/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/broken_basic.root b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/broken_basic.root
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..326de0bba
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/broken_basic.root differ
diff --git a/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/samplehists.C b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/samplehists.C
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b520bf128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/import_export/ROOT/data/samplehists.C
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+void samplehists()
+{
+    TFile fBasic("basic_lz4.root", "RECREATE");
+    fBasic.SetCompressionAlgorithm(ROOT::kLZ4);
+
+    TH1D doubleHist("doubleHist", "", 100, -5., 5.);
+    doubleHist.Sumw2();
+    doubleHist.FillRandom("gaus", 10000);
+    doubleHist.Write();
+
+    TH1F floatHist("floatHist", "", 100, -5., 5.);
+    floatHist.Sumw2();
+    floatHist.FillRandom("gaus", 10000);
+    floatHist.Write();
+
+    TH1I intHist("intHist", "", 100, -5., 5.);
+    intHist.Sumw2();
+    intHist.FillRandom("gaus", 10000);
+    intHist.Write();
+
+    TH1S shortHist("shortHist", "", 100, -5., 5.);
+    shortHist.Sumw2();
+    shortHist.FillRandom("gaus", 10000);
+    shortHist.Write();
+
+    TH1C charHist("charHist", "", 100, -5., 5.);
+    charHist.Sumw2();
+    charHist.FillRandom("gaus", 1000);
+    charHist.Write();
+
+    fBasic.Close();
+
+    TFile fAdvanced("advanced_zlib.root", "RECREATE");
+    fAdvanced.SetCompressionAlgorithm(ROOT::kZLIB);
+
+    vector<double> borders;
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < 101; ++i)
+        borders.push_back(0.09 * i - 5. + 1.e-4 * i * i);
+
+    TH1D variableBinHist("variableBinHist", "", 100, borders.data());
+    variableBinHist.Sumw2();
+    variableBinHist.FillRandom("gaus", 10000);
+    variableBinHist.Write();
+    variableBinHist.FillRandom("gaus", 1000000);
+    variableBinHist.Write();
+
+    fAdvanced.Close();
+
+    ifstream infile("basic_lz4.root");
+    ofstream outfile("broken_basic.root");
+
+    char buffer[3000];
+    infile.read(buffer, 3000);
+    outfile.write(buffer, 3000);
+}