diff --git a/bin/tests/system/Makefile.in b/bin/tests/system/Makefile.in
index 4b780c84a2..6dd6bb68b1 100644
--- a/bin/tests/system/Makefile.in
+++ b/bin/tests/system/Makefile.in
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ parallel.mk:
 	for directory in $(PARALLEL) ; do \
 		echo "" >> $@ ; \
 		echo "$$directory:" >> $@ ; \
-		echo "	@$(SHELL) ./run.sh -r -p $$port $$directory 2>&1 | tee $$directory/test.output" >> $@ ; \
+		echo "	@$(SHELL) ./run.sh $$NOCLEAN -r -p $$port $$directory 2>&1 | tee $$directory/test.output" >> $@ ; \
 		port=`expr $$port + 100` ; \
 	done
 
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ parallel.mk:
 
 test: parallel.mk subdirs
 	@$(MAKE) -f parallel.mk check
-	@$(SHELL) ./runsequential.sh -r
+	@$(SHELL) ./runsequential.sh $$NOCLEAN -r
 	@$(SHELL) ./testsummary.sh
 
 check: test
diff --git a/bin/tests/system/runall.sh b/bin/tests/system/runall.sh
index a48459e1a8..26f8648792 100644
--- a/bin/tests/system/runall.sh
+++ b/bin/tests/system/runall.sh
@@ -17,7 +17,15 @@
 SYSTEMTESTTOP=.
 . $SYSTEMTESTTOP/conf.sh
 
-usage="Usage: ./runall.sh [numprocesses]"
+usage="Usage: ./runall.sh [-n] [numprocesses]"
+
+while getopts "n" flag; do
+    case "$flag" in
+	n) CLEANFLAG="NOCLEAN=-n" ;;
+	*) echo "$usage" >&2 ; exit 1 ;;
+    esac
+done
+shift `expr $OPTIND - 1`
 
 if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
     numproc=1
@@ -25,7 +33,7 @@ elif [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
     test "$1" -eq "$1" > /dev/null 2>& 1
     if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
         # Value passed is not numeric
-        echo "$usage"
+        echo "$usage" >&2
         exit 1
     fi
     numproc=$1
@@ -34,6 +42,6 @@ else
     exit 1
 fi
 
-make -j $numproc check
+$CLEANFLAG make -j $numproc check
 
 exit $?