diff --git a/swh/core/tests/test_db.py b/swh/core/tests/test_db.py
index 939ae21..a9c70e8 100644
--- a/swh/core/tests/test_db.py
+++ b/swh/core/tests/test_db.py
@@ -1,84 +1,102 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2019  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 import os.path
 import tempfile
 import unittest
 
 from hypothesis import strategies, given
 import pytest
 
 from swh.core.db import BaseDb
-from swh.core.tests.db_testing import SingleDbTestFixture
+from swh.core.tests.db_testing import (
+    SingleDbTestFixture, db_create, db_destroy, db_close,
+)
 
 
 INIT_SQL = '''
 create table test_table
 (
     i       int,
     txt     text,
     bytes   bytea
 );
 '''
 
 db_rows = strategies.lists(strategies.tuples(
     strategies.integers(-2147483648, +2147483647),
     strategies.text(
         alphabet=strategies.characters(
             blacklist_categories=['Cs'],  # surrogates
             blacklist_characters=[
                 '\x00',  # pgsql does not support the null codepoint
                 '\r',  # pgsql normalizes those
             ]
         ),
     ),
     strategies.binary(),
 ))
 
 
+@pytest.mark.db
+def test_connect():
+    db_name = db_create('test-db2', dumps=[])
+    try:
+        db = BaseDb.connect('dbname=%s' % db_name)
+        with db.cursor() as cur:
+            cur.execute(INIT_SQL)
+            cur.execute("insert into test_table values (1, %s, %s);",
+                        ('foo', b'bar'))
+            cur.execute("select * from test_table;")
+            assert list(cur) == [(1, 'foo', b'bar')]
+    finally:
+        db_close(db.conn)
+        db_destroy(db_name)
+
+
 @pytest.mark.db
 class TestDb(SingleDbTestFixture, unittest.TestCase):
     TEST_DB_NAME = 'test-db'
 
     @classmethod
     def setUpClass(cls):
         with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as td:
             with open(os.path.join(td, 'init.sql'), 'a') as fd:
                 fd.write(INIT_SQL)
 
             cls.TEST_DB_DUMP = os.path.join(td, '*.sql')
 
             super().setUpClass()
 
     def setUp(self):
         super().setUp()
         self.db = BaseDb(self.conn)
 
     def test_initialized(self):
         cur = self.db.cursor()
         cur.execute("insert into test_table values (1, %s, %s);",
                     ('foo', b'bar'))
         cur.execute("select * from test_table;")
         self.assertEqual(list(cur), [(1, 'foo', b'bar')])
 
     def test_reset_tables(self):
         cur = self.db.cursor()
         cur.execute("insert into test_table values (1, %s, %s);",
                     ('foo', b'bar'))
         self.reset_db_tables('test-db')
         cur.execute("select * from test_table;")
         self.assertEqual(list(cur), [])
 
     @given(db_rows)
     def test_copy_to(self, data):
         # the table is not reset between runs by hypothesis
         self.reset_db_tables('test-db')
 
         items = [dict(zip(['i', 'txt', 'bytes'], item)) for item in data]
         self.db.copy_to(items, 'test_table', ['i', 'txt', 'bytes'])
 
         cur = self.db.cursor()
         cur.execute('select * from test_table;')
         self.assertCountEqual(list(cur), data)