diff --git a/cmake/Tests.cmake b/cmake/Tests.cmake
index db3dd86a5..f3e7fb2e4 100644
--- a/cmake/Tests.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Tests.cmake
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ if(POLICY CMP0037)
 endif()
 add_custom_target(test
   COMMAND env CTEST_PARALLEL_LEVEL=${CTEST_PARALLEL_LEVEL} FISH_FORCE_COLOR=1
-          ${CMAKE_CTEST_COMMAND} --force-new-ctest-process
+          ${CMAKE_CTEST_COMMAND} --force-new-ctest-process # --verbose
           --output-on-failure --progress
   DEPENDS fish_tests tests_buildroot_target
   USES_TERMINAL
@@ -121,10 +121,19 @@ add_custom_target(tests_buildroot_target
                           ${TEST_ROOT_DIR}
                   DEPENDS fish fish_test_helper)
 
+# CMake less than 3.9.0 "fully supports" setting an exit code to denote a skipped test, but then
+# it just goes ahead and reports it as failed. Really?
+if(${CMAKE_VERSION} VERSION_LESS "3.9.0")
+  set(CMAKE_SKIPPED_HACK "env" "CMAKE_SKIPPED_HACK=1")
+else()
+  set(CMAKE_SKIPPED_HACK)
+endif()
+
 foreach(LTEST ${LOW_LEVEL_TESTS})
   add_test(
     NAME ${LTEST}
-    COMMAND ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/fish_tests ${LTEST}
+    COMMAND sh ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests/test_env.sh
+               ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/fish_tests ${LTEST}
     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
   )
   set_tests_properties(${LTEST} PROPERTIES SKIP_RETURN_CODE ${SKIP_RETURN_CODE})
@@ -136,7 +145,7 @@ foreach(CHECK ${FISH_CHECKS})
   get_filename_component(CHECK_NAME ${CHECK} NAME)
   get_filename_component(CHECK ${CHECK} NAME_WE)
   add_test(NAME ${CHECK_NAME}
-    COMMAND sh ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests/test_driver.sh
+    COMMAND ${CMAKE_SKIPPED_HACK} sh ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests/test_driver.sh
                ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests/test.fish ${CHECK}
     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests
   )
@@ -148,7 +157,7 @@ FILE(GLOB PEXPECTS CONFIGURE_DEPENDS ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/tests/pexpects/*.py)
 foreach(PEXPECT ${PEXPECTS})
   get_filename_component(PEXPECT ${PEXPECT} NAME)
   add_test(NAME ${PEXPECT}
-    COMMAND sh ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests/test_driver.sh
+    COMMAND ${CMAKE_SKIPPED_HACK} sh ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests/test_driver.sh
       ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests/interactive.fish ${PEXPECT}
     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/tests
   )
diff --git a/tests/test_driver.sh b/tests/test_driver.sh
index 6fac9ddac..9061d5e44 100644
--- a/tests/test_driver.sh
+++ b/tests/test_driver.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 # vim: set ts=4 sw=4 tw=100 et:
-# POSIX sh test driver to reduce dependency on fish in tests
+
+# POSIX sh test driver to reduce dependency on fish in tests.
+# Executes the specified *fish script* with the provided arguments, after setting up a clean test
+# environment (see `test_env.sh`) and then importing the fish-related helper functions and
+# performing some state initialization required by the various fish tests. Each payload script is
+# executed in its own environment, this script waits for fish to exit then cleans up the target
+# environment and bubbles up the fish exit code.
 
 # macOS has really weird default IFS behavior that splits output in random places, and the trailing
 # backspace is to prevent \n from being gobbled up by the subshell output substitution.
@@ -11,6 +17,8 @@ IFS="$(printf "\n\b")"
 fish_script="$1"
 shift 1
 script_args="${@}"
+# Prevent $@ from persisting to sourced commands
+shift $# 2>/dev/null
 
 die() {
     if test "$#" -ge 0; then
@@ -20,7 +28,7 @@ die() {
 }
 
 # To keep things sane and to make error messages comprehensible, do not use relative paths anywhere
-# in this script. Instead, make all paths relative to one of these or $homedir."
+# in this script. Instead, make all paths relative to one of these or the new $HOME ($homedir)."
 TESTS_ROOT="$(dirname "$0")"
 BUILD_ROOT="${TESTS_ROOT}/.."
 
@@ -35,30 +43,8 @@ if ! test -z "$__fish_is_running_tests"; then
     exit 10
 fi
 
-# Set up a test environment and re-run the original script. We do not share environments
-# whatsoever between tests, so each test driver run sets up a new profile altogether.
-
-# macOS 10.10 requires an explicit template for `mktemp` and will create the folder in the
-# current directory unless told otherwise. Linux isn't guaranteed to have $TMPDIR set.
-homedir="$(mktemp -d 2>/dev/null || mktemp -d "${TMPDIR}tmp.XXXXXXXXXX")"
-
-XDG_DATA_HOME="$homedir/xdg_data_home"
-export XDG_DATA_HOME
-mkdir -p $XDG_DATA_HOME/fish || die
-
-XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$homedir/xdg_config_home"
-export XDG_CONFIG_HOME
-mkdir -p $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fish || die
-
-XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="$homedir/xdg_runtime_dir"
-export XDG_CONFIG_HOME
-mkdir -p $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/fish || die
-
-# Create a temp/scratch directory for tests to use, if they want (tests shouldn't write to a
-# shared temp folder).
-TMPDIR="$homedir/temp"
-mkdir ${TMPDIR}
-export TMPDIR
+# Set up the test environment. Does not change the current working directory.
+. ${TESTS_ROOT}/test_env.sh
 
 # These are used read-only so it's OK to symlink instead of copy
 rm -f "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fish/functions"
@@ -71,37 +57,6 @@ fish_init_cmd="set fish_function_path ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/fish/functions ${BUILD_
 __fish_is_running_tests="$homedir"
 export __fish_is_running_tests
 
-# Set locale information for consistent tests. Fish should work with a lot of locales but the
-# tests assume an english UTF-8 locale unless they explicitly override this default. We do not
-# want the users locale to affect the tests since they might, for example, change the wording of
-# logged messages.
-#
-# TODO: set LANG to en_US.UTF-8 so we test the locale message conversions (i.e., gettext).
-unset LANGUAGE
-# Remove "LC_" env vars from the test environment
-for key in $(env | grep -E "^LC_"| grep -oE "^[^=]+"); do
-    unset "$key"
-done
-# Set the desired lang/locale tests are hard-coded against
-export LANG="C"
-export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
-
-# These env vars should not be inherited from the user environment because they can affect the
-# behavior of the tests. So either remove them or set them to a known value.
-# See also tests/interactive.fish.
-export TERM=xterm
-unset COLORTERM
-unset INSIDE_EMACS
-unset ITERM_PROFILE
-unset KONSOLE_PROFILE_NAME
-unset KONSOLE_VERSION
-unset PANTHEON_TERMINAL_ID
-unset TERM_PROGRAM
-unset TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION
-unset VTE_VERSION
-unset WT_PROFILE_ID
-unset XTERM_VERSION
-
 # Set a marker to indicate whether colored output should be suppressed (used in `test_util.fish`)
 suppress_color=""
 if ! tty 0>&1 > /dev/null; then
@@ -112,7 +67,7 @@ export suppress_color
 # Source test util functions at startup
 fish_init_cmd="${fish_init_cmd} && source ${TESTS_ROOT}/test_util.fish";
 
-# Run the test script, but don't exec so we can do cleanup after it succeeds/fails. Each test is
+# Run the test script, but don't exec so we can clean up after it succeeds/fails. Each test is
 # launched directly within its TMPDIR, so that the fish tests themselves do not need to refer to
 # TMPDIR (to ensure their output as displayed in case of failure by littlecheck is reproducible).
 (cd $TMPDIR; env HOME="$homedir" "${BUILD_ROOT}/test/root/bin/fish" \
@@ -120,5 +75,14 @@ fish_init_cmd="${fish_init_cmd} && source ${TESTS_ROOT}/test_util.fish";
     "$fish_script" "$script_args")
 test_status="$?"
 
+# CMake less than 3.9.0 "fully supports" setting an exit code to denote a skipped test, but then
+# it just goes ahead and reports them as failed anyway. Really?
+if test -n $CMAKE_SKIPPED_HACK; then
+    if test $test_status -eq 125; then
+        echo "Overriding SKIPPED return code from test" 1>&2
+        test_status=0
+    fi
+fi
+
 rm -rf "$homedir"
 exit "$test_status"
diff --git a/tests/test_env.sh b/tests/test_env.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..52728b617
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_env.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+# vim: set ts=4 sw=4 tw=100 et:
+
+# This script sets up a clean environment for a script or executable to execute in/under. It creates
+# (and sets) $TMPDIR initialized to a clean & unique temporary directory, creates a new $HOME, sets
+# the relevant XDG_* directories to point to subdirectories of that $HOME, cleans up any potentially
+# problematic environment variables, executes the provided command, waits for it to exit, then
+# cleans up the newly created environment before bubbling up the exit code. $PWD is not changed.
+# If sourced instead of executed, sets up the environment as before but does not execute any payload
+# and does not destroy the newly created environment.
+
+# macOS has really weird default IFS behavior that splits output in random places, and the trailing
+# backspace is to prevent \n from being gobbled up by the subshell output substitution.
+# Folks, this is why you should use fish!
+IFS="$(printf "\n\b")"
+# set -ex
+
+# The first argument is the path to the script to launch; all remaining arguments are forwarded to
+# the script.
+if test $# -gt 0; then
+    target="$1"
+    shift 1
+    target_args="${@}"
+fi
+
+die() {
+    if test "$#" -ge 0; then
+        printf "%s\n" "$@" 1>&2
+    fi
+    exit 1
+}
+
+# Set up a test environment to run the specified target under. We do not share environments
+# whatsoever between tests, so each test driver run sets up a new profile altogether.
+
+# macOS 10.10 requires an explicit template for `mktemp` and will create the folder in the
+# current directory unless told otherwise. Linux isn't guaranteed to have $TMPDIR set.
+homedir="$(mktemp -d 2>/dev/null || mktemp -d "${TMPDIR}tmp.XXXXXXXXXX")"
+export HOME="$homedir"
+
+XDG_DATA_HOME="$homedir/xdg_data_home"
+export XDG_DATA_HOME
+mkdir -p $XDG_DATA_HOME/fish || die
+
+XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$homedir/xdg_config_home"
+export XDG_CONFIG_HOME
+mkdir -p $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fish || die
+
+XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="$homedir/xdg_runtime_dir"
+export XDG_CONFIG_HOME
+mkdir -p $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/fish || die
+
+# Create a temp/scratch directory for tests to use, if they want (tests shouldn't write to a
+# shared temp folder).
+TMPDIR="$homedir/temp"
+mkdir ${TMPDIR}
+export TMPDIR
+
+# Set locale information for consistent tests. Fish should work with a lot of locales but the
+# tests assume an english UTF-8 locale unless they explicitly override this default. We do not
+# want the users locale to affect the tests since they might, for example, change the wording of
+# logged messages.
+#
+# TODO: set LANG to en_US.UTF-8 so we test the locale message conversions (i.e., gettext).
+unset LANGUAGE
+# Remove "LC_" env vars from the test environment
+for key in $(env | grep -E "^LC_"| grep -oE "^[^=]+"); do
+    unset "$key"
+done
+# Set the desired lang/locale tests are hard-coded against
+export LANG="C"
+export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
+
+# These env vars should not be inherited from the user environment because they can affect the
+# behavior of the tests. So either remove them or set them to a known value.
+# See also tests/interactive.fish.
+export TERM=xterm
+unset COLORTERM
+unset INSIDE_EMACS
+unset ITERM_PROFILE
+unset KONSOLE_PROFILE_NAME
+unset KONSOLE_VERSION
+unset PANTHEON_TERMINAL_ID
+unset TERM_PROGRAM
+unset TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION
+unset VTE_VERSION
+unset WT_PROFILE_ID
+unset XTERM_VERSION
+
+# If we are sourced, return without executing
+if test -z ${target}; then
+    return 0
+fi
+echo "Proceeding with target execution"
+
+# Otherwise execute target
+("${target}" "${target_args}")
+test_status="$?"
+
+rm -rf "$homedir"
+exit "$test_status"