diff --git a/testsuite/busybox.tests b/testsuite/busybox.tests
index 7595d061f..b69272593 100755
--- a/testsuite/busybox.tests
+++ b/testsuite/busybox.tests
@@ -7,15 +7,9 @@
 if [ ${#COMMAND} -eq 0 ]; then COMMAND=busybox; fi
 . testing.sh
 
-# Depends on nothing
-_BB_CONFIG_DEP=""
-
-# We'll assume "cat" is built in, because we need some other command to test.
-
 HELPDUMP=`$COMMAND`
 
-# The gratuitous "\n"s are due to a shell idiosyncrasy: environment variables
-# seem to strip trailing whitespace, which makes cmp and diff unhappy.
+# We need to test under calling the binary under other names.
 
 ln -s `which "$COMMAND"` busybox-suffix
 ln -s `which "$COMMAND"` unknown
@@ -29,15 +23,16 @@ do
 
 	testing "$i" "" "$HELPDUMP\n\n" "" ""
 
-	testing "$i cat" "cat" "moo" "" "moo"
-
 	testing "$i unknown" "unknown 2>&1" \
 		"unknown: applet not found\n" "" ""
 
 	testing "$i --help" "--help 2>&1" "$HELPDUMP\n\n" "" ""
 
+	optional CAT
+	testing "$i cat" "cat" "moo" "" "moo"
 	testing "$i --help cat" "--help cat 2>&1 | grep prints" \
 		"Concatenates FILE(s) and prints them to stdout.\n" "" ""
+	optional ""
 
 	testing "$i --help unknown" "--help unknown 2>&1" \
 		"unknown: applet not found\n" "" ""
diff --git a/testsuite/egrep.tests b/testsuite/egrep.tests
index b634649bb..61ce009d7 100755
--- a/testsuite/egrep.tests
+++ b/testsuite/egrep.tests
@@ -9,8 +9,7 @@
 [ ${#COMMAND} -eq 0 ] && COMMAND=egrep
 . testing.sh
 
-# Depends on FEATURE_GREP_EGREP_ALIAS
-_BB_CONFIG_DEP=FEATURE_GREP_EGREP_ALIAS
+optional FEATURE_GREP_EGREP_ALIAS
 
 testing "grep is also egrep" "foo" "foo\n" "" "foo\nbar\n"
 testing "egrep is not case insensitive" "foo ; [ \$? -ne 0 ] && echo yes" \
diff --git a/testsuite/grep.tests b/testsuite/grep.tests
index c4f534d1a..2a7a7b901 100755
--- a/testsuite/grep.tests
+++ b/testsuite/grep.tests
@@ -9,9 +9,6 @@
 [ ${#COMMAND} -eq 0 ] && COMMAND=grep
 . testing.sh
 
-# Depends on grep
-_BB_CONFIG_DEP=grep
-
 # testing "test name" "options" "expected result" "file input" "stdin"
 #   file input will be file called "input"
 #   test can create a file "actual" instead of writing to stdout
@@ -75,8 +72,7 @@ testing "grep matches NUL" ". input > /dev/null 2>&1 ; echo \$?" "0\n" "\0\n" ""
 testing "grep handles multiple regexps" "-e one -e two input ; echo \$?" \
 	"one\ntwo\n0\n" "one\ntwo\n" ""
 
-# Depends on FEATURE_GREP_EGREP_ALIAS
-_BB_CONFIG_DEP=FEATURE_GREP_EGREP_ALIAS
+optional FEATURE_GREP_EGREP_ALIAS
 testing "grep -E supports extended regexps" "-E fo+" "foo\n" "" "b\ar\nfoo\nbaz"
 
 exit $FAILCOUNT
diff --git a/testsuite/pidof.tests b/testsuite/pidof.tests
index 0c303cf22..0515522f8 100755
--- a/testsuite/pidof.tests
+++ b/testsuite/pidof.tests
@@ -16,13 +16,11 @@ testing "pidof (exit with error)" "veryunlikelyoccuringbinaryname ; echo \$?" \
 testing "pidof (exit with success)" "pidof > /dev/null; echo \$?" "0\n" "" ""
 
 
-# Depends on FEATURE_PIDOF_SINGLE
-_BB_CONFIG_DEP=FEATURE_PIDOF_SINGLE
+optional FEATURE_PIDOF_SINGLE
 testing "pidof -s" "-s $(basename $0) ; echo -n \$?" \
 	"$(pidof -s $(basename $0) ; echo -n $?)" "" ""
 
-# Depends on FEATURE_PIDOF_OMIT
-_BB_CONFIG_DEP=FEATURE_PIDOF_OMIT
+optional FEATURE_PIDOF_OMIT
 testing "pidof -o %PPID" "$(basename $0) -o %PPID ; echo -n \$?" \
 	"$(pidof $(basename $0) -o %PPID ; echo -n $?)" "" ""
 
diff --git a/testsuite/runtest b/testsuite/runtest
index 9fd2d0f13..c1b1ec2f4 100755
--- a/testsuite/runtest
+++ b/testsuite/runtest
@@ -91,6 +91,11 @@ else
 	applets=$(ls $srcdir)
 fi
 
+# Set up option flags so tests can be selective.
+
+configfile=${bindir:-../../}/.config
+export OPTIONFLAGS=:$(echo $(sed -nr 's/^CONFIG_(.*)=.*/\1/p' $configfile) | sed 's/ /:/')
+
 for applet in $applets; do
 	if [ "$applet" = "links" ]; then continue; fi
 	if [ "$applet" != "CVS" -a -d "$srcdir/$applet" ]; then
@@ -100,9 +105,18 @@ for applet in $applets; do
 			status=1
 		fi
 	fi
+
+	# Is this a new-style test?
 	applet=$(echo "$applet" | sed -n 's/\.tests$//p')
 	if [ ${#applet} -ne 0 ]
 	then
+		appcfg=`grep -i "^# CONFIG_$applet" $configfile`
+		if [ -n "$appcfg" ]
+		then
+			echo "SKIPPED: $applet (is configured out)"
+			continue
+		fi
+		# Setup environment for test.
 		if [ -d links ]; then
 			rm -f links/"$applet" 
 		else
diff --git a/testsuite/sort.tests b/testsuite/sort.tests
index 04d75cfe2..294530988 100755
--- a/testsuite/sort.tests
+++ b/testsuite/sort.tests
@@ -7,9 +7,6 @@
 if [ ${#COMMAND} -eq 0 ]; then COMMAND=sort; fi
 . testing.sh
 
-# Depends on sort
-_BB_CONFIG_DEP=sort
-
 # The basic tests.  These should work even with the small busybox.
 
 testing "sort" "input" "a\nb\nc\n" "c\na\nb\n" ""
@@ -21,6 +18,7 @@ testing "sort reverse" "-r input" "wook\nwalrus\npoint\npabst\naargh\n" \
 
 # These tests require the full option set.
 
+optional FEATURE_SORT_BIG
 # Longish chunk of data re-used by the next few tests
 
 data="42	1	3	woot
@@ -48,7 +46,7 @@ egg	1	2	papyrus
 999	3	0	algebra
 " "$data" ""
 
-# Busybox is definitely doing this one wrong just now...
+# Busybox is definitely doing this one wrong just now.  FIXME
 
 testing "sort key range with numeric option and global reverse" \
 "-k2,3n -r input" \
diff --git a/testsuite/testing.sh b/testsuite/testing.sh
index 83727f6d3..c1002a6aa 100755
--- a/testsuite/testing.sh
+++ b/testsuite/testing.sh
@@ -4,10 +4,18 @@
 #
 # License is GPLv2, see LICENSE in the busybox tarball for full license text.
 
-# The "testing" function uses one environment variable:
-#	COMMAND = command to execute
+# This file defines two functions, "testing" and "optionflag"
+
+# The "testing" function must have the following environment variable set:
+#    COMMAND = command to execute
 #
-# The function takes five arguments:
+# The following environment variables may be set to enable optional behavior
+# in "testing":
+#    VERBOSE - Print the diff -u of each failed test case.
+#    DEBUG - Enable command tracing.
+#    SKIP - do not perform this test (this is set by "optionflag")
+#
+# The "testing" function takes five arguments:
 #	$1) Description to display when running command
 #	$2) Command line arguments to command"
 #	$3) Expected result (on stdout)"
@@ -17,39 +25,31 @@
 # The exit value of testing is the exit value of the command it ran.
 #
 # The environment variable "FAILCOUNT" contains a cumulative total of the
-# 
+# number of failed tests.
 
-verbose=0
-debug=0
-force=0
-for x in "$@" ; do
-	case "$x" in
-	-v|--verbose)  verbose=1; shift;;
-	-d|--debug)    debug=1; shift;;
-	-f|--force)    force=1; shift;;
-	--)            break;;
-	-*)            echo "Unknown option '$x'"; exit 1;;
-	*)             break;;
-	esac
-done
-
-if [ -n "$VERBOSE" ] ; then
-	verbose=1
-fi
-if [ -n "$DEBUG" ] ; then
-	debug=1
-fi
+# The "optional" function is used to skip certain tests, ala:
+#   optionflag CONFIG_FEATURE_THINGY
+#
+# The "optional" function checks the environment variable "OPTIONFLAGS",
+# which is either empty (in which case it always clears SKIP) or
+# else contains a colon-separated list of features (in which case the function
+# clears SKIP if the flag was found, or sets it to 1 if the flag was not found).
 
 export FAILCOUNT=0
+export SKIP=
 
 # Helper functions
 
-config_is_set ()
+optional()
 {
-  local uc_what=$(echo ${1?} | tr a-z A-Z)
-  grep -q "^[ 	]*CONFIG_${uc_what}" ${bindir:-..}/.config || \
-    grep -q "^[ 	]*BB_CONFIG_${uc_what}" ${bindir:-..}/.config
-  return $?
+  option="$OPTIONFLAGS" | egrep "(^|:)$1(:|\$)"
+  # Not set?
+  if [[ -z "$1" || -z "$OPTIONFLAGS" || ${#option} -ne 0 ]]
+  then
+    SKIP=""
+    return
+  fi
+  SKIP=1
 }
 
 # The testing function
@@ -62,17 +62,14 @@ testing ()
     exit
   fi
 
-  if [ $debug -eq 1 ] ; then
+  if [ -n "$DEBUG" ] ; then
     set -x
   fi
 
-  if [ -n "$_BB_CONFIG_DEP" ] && [ ${force} -eq 0 ]
+  if [ -n "$SKIP" ]
   then
-    if ! config_is_set "$_BB_CONFIG_DEP"
-    then
-      echo "SKIPPED: $1"
-      return 0
-    fi
+    echo "SKIPPED: $1"
+    return 0
   fi
 
   echo -ne "$3" > expected
@@ -83,18 +80,19 @@ testing ()
   cmp expected actual > /dev/null
   if [ $? -ne 0 ]
   then
-	((FAILCOUNT++))
-	echo "FAIL: $1"
-	if [ $verbose -eq 1 ]
-	then
-		diff -u expected actual
-	fi
+    FAILCOUNT=$[$FAILCOUNT+1]
+    echo "FAIL: $1"
+    if [ -n "$VERBOSE" ]
+    then
+      diff -u expected actual
+    fi
   else
-	echo "PASS: $1"
+    echo "PASS: $1"
   fi
   rm -f input expected actual
 
-  if [ $debug -eq 1 ] ; then
+  if [ -n "$DEBUG" ]
+  then
     set +x
   fi
 
diff --git a/testsuite/uniq.tests b/testsuite/uniq.tests
index 27d9561e1..95764740b 100755
--- a/testsuite/uniq.tests
+++ b/testsuite/uniq.tests
@@ -9,9 +9,6 @@
 if [ ${#COMMAND} -eq 0 ]; then COMMAND=uniq; fi
 . testing.sh
 
-# Depends on uniq
-_BB_CONFIG_DEP=uniq
-
 # testing "test name" "options" "expected result" "file input" "stdin"
 #   file input will be file called "input"
 #   test can create a file "actual" instead of writing to stdout