diff --git a/test/choosetests.jl b/test/choosetests.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee68d50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/choosetests.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+# This file is a part of Julia. License is MIT: http://julialang.org/license
+
+@doc """
+
+`tests, net_on = choosetests(choices)` selects a set of tests to be
+run. `choices` should be a vector of test names; if empty or set to
+`["all"]`, all tests are selected.
+
+This function also supports "test collections": specifically, "linalg"
+ refers to collections of tests in the correspondingly-named
+directories.
+
+Upon return, `tests` is a vector of fully-expanded test names, and
+`net_on` is true if networking is available (required for some tests).
+""" ->
+function choosetests(choices = [])
+    testnames = [
+        "testing_testing"
+    ]
+
+    if Base.USE_GPL_LIBS && 1 == 0
+        testnames = [testnames, "fft", "dsp"; ]
+    end
+
+    if isdir(joinpath(JULIA_HOME, Base.DOCDIR, "examples"))  && 1 == 0
+        push!(testnames, "examples")
+    end
+
+    # parallel tests depend on other workers - do them last
+    #push!(testnames, "parallel")
+
+    tests = (ARGS==["all"] || isempty(ARGS)) ? testnames : ARGS
+
+    if "linalg" in tests
+        # specifically selected case
+        filter!(x -> x != "linalg", tests)
+        linalgtests = ["linalg1", "linalg2", "linalg3", "linalg4",
+                       "linalg/lapack", "linalg/triangular", "linalg/tridiag",
+                       "linalg/bidiag", "linalg/diagonal",
+                       "linalg/pinv", "linalg/givens", "linalg/cholesky", "linalg/lu",
+                       "linalg/symmetric"]
+        if Base.USE_GPL_LIBS
+            push!(linalgtests, "linalg/arnoldi")
+        end
+        prepend!(tests, linalgtests)
+    end
+
+    net_required_for = []
+    net_on = true
+    try
+        getipaddr()
+    catch
+        warn("Networking unavailable: Skipping tests [" * join(net_required_for, ", ") * "]")
+        net_on = false
+    end
+
+    if ccall(:jl_running_on_valgrind,Cint,()) != 0 && "rounding" in tests
+        warn("Running under valgrind: Skipping rounding tests")
+        filter!(x -> x != "rounding", tests)
+    end
+
+    if !net_on
+        filter!(x -> !(x in net_required_for), tests)
+    end
+
+    tests, net_on
+end
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a77d56a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# This file is a part of Julia. License is MIT: http://julialang.org/license
+
+include("choosetests.jl")
+tests, net_on = choosetests(ARGS)
+cd(dirname(@__FILE__)) do
+    n = 1
+    if net_on
+        n = min(8, CPU_CORES, length(tests))
+        n > 1 && addprocs(n; exeflags=`--check-bounds=yes`)
+        blas_set_num_threads(1)
+    end
+
+    @everywhere include("testdefs.jl")
+
+    reduce(propagate_errors, nothing, pmap(runtests, tests; err_retry=false, err_stop=true))
+
+    @unix_only n > 1 && rmprocs(workers(), waitfor=5.0)
+    println("    \033[32;1mSUCCESS\033[0m")
+end
diff --git a/test/testdefs.jl b/test/testdefs.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7ddcda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/testdefs.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# This file is a part of Julia. License is MIT: http://julialang.org/license
+
+using Base.Test
+
+function runtests(name)
+    @printf("     \033[1m*\033[0m \033[31m%-20s\033[0m", name)
+    tt = @elapsed Core.include(abspath("$name.jl"))
+    @printf(" in %6.2f seconds\n", tt)
+    nothing
+end
+
+function propagate_errors(a,b)
+    if isa(a,Exception)
+        rethrow(a)
+    end
+    if isa(b,Exception)
+        rethrow(b)
+    end
+    nothing
+end
+
+# looking in . messes things up badly
+filter!(x->x!=".", LOAD_PATH)
diff --git a/test/testing_testing.jl b/test/testing_testing.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..17b0a55
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/testing_testing.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# This file is a part of JuliaFEM. License is MIT: https://github.com/ovainola/JuliaFEM/blob/master/README.md
+
+using Base.Test
+
+@test 1 == 1