diff --git a/src/testing/test_file_io.cpp b/src/testing/test_file_io.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0c50ee74eff9468e0095a1d698d2fb0759df63b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/testing/test_file_io.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+/* Copyright (C) 2024   INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
+
+   This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+   the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+   (at your option) any later version.
+   
+   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+   GNU General Public License for more details.
+   
+   A copy of the GNU General Public License is distributed along with
+   this program in the COPYING file. If not, see: <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+//! \file test_TEDF.cpp
+
+#include <cstdio>
+#include <exception>
+#include <hdf5.h>
+#include <string>
+
+#ifndef INCLUDE_TYPES_H_
+#include "../include/types.h"
+#endif
+
+#ifndef INCLUDE_ERRORS_H_
+#include "../include/errors.h"
+#endif
+
+#ifndef INCLUDE_LIST_H_
+#include "../include/List.h"
+#endif
+
+#ifndef INCLUDE_FILE_IO_H_
+#include "../include/file_io.h"
+#endif
+
+#ifndef INCLUDE_CONFIGURATION_H_
+#include "../include/Configuration.h"
+#endif
+
+using namespace std;
+
+/*! \brief Main program execution body.
+ *
+ * This program executes a test to compare whether three configuration
+ * instances, loaded respectively from an EDFB configuration file, a
+ * legacy binary, or a HDF5 binary are actually equivalent. The test
+ * writes a result message to `stdout` then it returns 0 (OS flag for
+ * a successful process) or some kind of error code, depending on
+ * whether the test files were found all equal or not. The test accepts
+ * three command line arguments: the name of the EDFB configuration
+ * file, the name of the legacy binary file and the name of the HDF5
+ * binary configuration file.
+ *
+ * \param argc: `int` Number of command line arguments
+ * \param argv: `char **` Array of command argument character strings.
+ * \return result: `int` Can be: 0 (all files equal); 1 (EDFB and
+ * legacy binary are different); 10 (EDFB and HDF5 are different);
+ * 100 (legacy and HDF5 are different). In case more differences are
+ * found, the error codes sum up together (e.g. 111 means all files
+ * are different).
+ */
+int main(int argc, char **argv) {
+  int result = 0;
+  string dedfb_file = "DEDFB";
+  string legacy_file = "c_TEDF";
+  string hdf5_file = "c_TEDF.hd5";
+  if (argc == 4) {
+    dedfb_file = string(argv[1]);
+    legacy_file = string(argv[2]);
+    hdf5_file = string(argv[3]);
+  }
+  ScattererConfiguration *a, *b, *c;
+  try { a = ScattererConfiguration::from_dedfb(dedfb_file); }
+  catch (...) {
+    printf("Failed to open legacy configuration file.\n");
+    return 2;
+  }
+  try { b = ScattererConfiguration::from_binary(legacy_file); }
+  catch (...) {
+    printf("Failed to open legacy binary file.\n");
+    return 20;
+  }
+  try { c = ScattererConfiguration::from_binary(hdf5_file, "HDF5"); }
+  catch (...) {
+    printf("Failed to open HDF5 configuration file.\n");
+    return 200;
+  }
+  if (*a == *b) printf("Configuration objects a and b are equal.\n");
+  else {
+    printf("Configuration objects a and b are different.\n");
+    result += 1;
+  }
+  if (*a == *c) printf("Configuration objects a and c are equal.\n");
+  else {
+    printf("Configuration objects a and c are different.\n");
+    result += 10;
+  }
+  if (*c == *b) printf("Configuration objects c and b are equal.\n");
+  else {
+    printf("Configuration objects c and b are different.\n");
+    result += 100;
+  }
+  return result;
+}