diff --git a/scripts/check-installed b/scripts/check-installed
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..d588ef84c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check-installed
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+#! /usr/bin/perl
+
+# This script can be used to compare the bee packages installed in the system with
+# the bee files in the current working directory, which is assumend to be the checked
+# out master branch of git@github.molgen.mpg.de:mariux64/bee-files.git
+#
+#     git checkout master
+#     git pull
+#     scripts/check-installed
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+sub scandir {
+        my ($dirname)=@_;
+        opendir my $dir,$dirname or die "$dirname: $!\n";
+        return sort grep !/^\./,readdir $dir;
+}
+
+sub save_qx {
+	my (@cmd)=@_;
+	my $pid=open my $pipe,'-|';
+	defined $pid or die "$!\n";
+	unless ($pid) {
+		exec @cmd or die "$!";
+		exit(1);
+	}
+	return join('',<$pipe>);
+}
+
+our %GIT_FILE;
+
+for my $beefile (scandir('.')) {
+	$beefile=~/\.(bee|be0)$/ or next;
+	$beefile eq 'TEMPLATE.be0' and next;
+	-f $beefile or next;
+	my $pkg=save_qx('beeversion','--format','%A',$beefile);
+	chomp($pkg);
+	unless ($pkg) {
+		print "# can't parse version of $beefile\n";
+		next;
+	}
+	unless ($pkg =~ /.x86_64$/) {
+		if ($pkg =~ '^(iana-etc-2.30-0|lesspipe-1-0)$') {
+			$pkg.='.noarch';
+		} else {
+			$pkg.='.x86_64';
+		 }
+	}
+	if (exists($GIT_FILE{$pkg})) {
+		print "# bee file $beefile overwrites package $pkg from $GIT_FILE{$pkg}\n";
+	}
+	$GIT_FILE{$pkg}=$beefile;
+}
+
+%GIT_FILE or die "no bee files here. Are you sitting in a checked out bee-files repository (git\@github.molgen.mpg.de:mariux64/bee-files.git) ?\n";
+
+for my $dir (scandir('/usr/share/bee')) {
+	my $pkg=$dir;
+	my $beefile=save_qx('beeversion','--format','%F',"$pkg.bee");
+	unless (-e "/usr/share/bee/$pkg/$beefile.bee") {
+		print "# no such file /usr/share/bee/$pkg/$beefile\n";
+		next;
+	}
+	unless (exists($GIT_FILE{$pkg})) {
+		print "# package in system but not in git: $pkg\n";
+	}
+	delete $GIT_FILE{$pkg};
+}
+
+for my $pkg (sort(keys(%GIT_FILE))) {
+	my $beefile=$GIT_FILE{$pkg};
+	print "# package in git but not in system: $pkg ($beefile)\n";
+}
+