diff --git a/t/lib-git-svn.sh b/t/lib-git-svn.sh
index 2fde2353fd..52843f667d 100644
--- a/t/lib-git-svn.sh
+++ b/t/lib-git-svn.sh
@@ -15,8 +15,7 @@ GIT_SVN_DIR=$GIT_DIR/svn/refs/remotes/git-svn
 SVN_TREE=$GIT_SVN_DIR/svn-tree
 test_set_port SVNSERVE_PORT
 
-svn >/dev/null 2>&1
-if test $? -ne 1
+if ! svn help >/dev/null 2>&1
 then
 	skip_all='skipping git svn tests, svn not found'
 	test_done
@@ -27,13 +26,13 @@ export svnrepo
 svnconf=$PWD/svnconf
 export svnconf
 
+x=0
 perl -w -e "
 use SVN::Core;
 use SVN::Repos;
 \$SVN::Core::VERSION gt '1.1.0' or exit(42);
 system(qw/svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs/, \$ENV{svnrepo}) == 0 or exit(41);
-" >&3 2>&4
-x=$?
+" >&3 2>&4 || x=$?
 if test $x -ne 0
 then
 	if test $x -eq 42; then
diff --git a/t/lib-httpd.sh b/t/lib-httpd.sh
index 4c76e813e3..fc646447d5 100644
--- a/t/lib-httpd.sh
+++ b/t/lib-httpd.sh
@@ -235,11 +235,10 @@ start_httpd() {
 
 	test_atexit stop_httpd
 
-	"$LIB_HTTPD_PATH" -d "$HTTPD_ROOT_PATH" \
+	if ! "$LIB_HTTPD_PATH" -d "$HTTPD_ROOT_PATH" \
 		-f "$TEST_PATH/apache.conf" $HTTPD_PARA \
 		-c "Listen 127.0.0.1:$LIB_HTTPD_PORT" -k start \
 		>&3 2>&4
-	if test $? -ne 0
 	then
 		cat "$HTTPD_ROOT_PATH"/error.log >&4 2>/dev/null
 		test_skip_or_die GIT_TEST_HTTPD "web server setup failed"
diff --git a/t/t3901-i18n-patch.sh b/t/t3901-i18n-patch.sh
index f03601b49a..ef7d7e1edc 100755
--- a/t/t3901-i18n-patch.sh
+++ b/t/t3901-i18n-patch.sh
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ check_encoding () {
 		8859)
 			grep "^encoding ISO8859-1" ;;
 		*)
-			grep "^encoding ISO8859-1"; test "$?" != 0 ;;
+			ret=0; grep "^encoding ISO8859-1" || ret=$?
+			test "$ret" != 0 ;;
 		esac || return 1
 		j=$i
 		i=$(($i+1))
diff --git a/t/t5000-tar-tree.sh b/t/t5000-tar-tree.sh
index 5465054f17..a8c28533dc 100755
--- a/t/t5000-tar-tree.sh
+++ b/t/t5000-tar-tree.sh
@@ -503,8 +503,8 @@ test_expect_success LONG_IS_64BIT 'set up repository with huge blob' '
 # would generate the whole 64GB).
 test_expect_success LONG_IS_64BIT 'generate tar with huge size' '
 	{
-		git archive HEAD
-		echo $? >exit-code
+		{ ret=0 && git archive HEAD || ret=$?; } &&
+		echo "$ret" >exit-code
 	} | test_copy_bytes 4096 >huge.tar &&
 	echo 141 >expect &&
 	test_cmp expect exit-code
diff --git a/t/t7422-submodule-output.sh b/t/t7422-submodule-output.sh
index aea1ddf117..852136fdfd 100755
--- a/t/t7422-submodule-output.sh
+++ b/t/t7422-submodule-output.sh
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ test_expect_success !MINGW 'git submodule status --recursive propagates SIGPIPE'
 	(
 		cd repo &&
 		GIT_ALLOW_PROTOCOL=file git submodule add "$(pwd)"/../submodule &&
-		{ git submodule status --recursive 2>err; echo $?>status; } |
+		{ { ret=0 && git submodule status --recursive 2>err || ret=$?; } && echo $ret >status; } |
 			grep -q recursive-submodule-path-1 &&
 		test_must_be_empty err &&
 		test_match_signal 13 "$(cat status)"
diff --git a/t/t9200-git-cvsexportcommit.sh b/t/t9200-git-cvsexportcommit.sh
index 14cbe96527..581cf3d28f 100755
--- a/t/t9200-git-cvsexportcommit.sh
+++ b/t/t9200-git-cvsexportcommit.sh
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@ if ! test_have_prereq PERL; then
 	test_done
 fi
 
-cvs >/dev/null 2>&1
-if test $? -ne 1
+if ! cvs version >/dev/null 2>&1
 then
     skip_all='skipping git cvsexportcommit tests, cvs not found'
     test_done
diff --git a/t/t9400-git-cvsserver-server.sh b/t/t9400-git-cvsserver-server.sh
index e499c7f955..4b45398bab 100755
--- a/t/t9400-git-cvsserver-server.sh
+++ b/t/t9400-git-cvsserver-server.sh
@@ -17,12 +17,13 @@ if ! test_have_prereq PERL; then
 	skip_all='skipping git cvsserver tests, perl not available'
 	test_done
 fi
-cvs >/dev/null 2>&1
-if test $? -ne 1
+
+if ! cvs version >/dev/null 2>&1
 then
     skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, cvs not found'
     test_done
 fi
+
 perl -e 'use DBI; use DBD::SQLite' >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
     skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, Perl SQLite interface unavailable'
     test_done
diff --git a/t/t9401-git-cvsserver-crlf.sh b/t/t9401-git-cvsserver-crlf.sh
index a34805acdc..6b4cbb1651 100755
--- a/t/t9401-git-cvsserver-crlf.sh
+++ b/t/t9401-git-cvsserver-crlf.sh
@@ -60,12 +60,12 @@ check_status_options() {
     return $stat
 }
 
-cvs >/dev/null 2>&1
-if test $? -ne 1
+if ! cvs version >/dev/null 2>&1
 then
     skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, cvs not found'
     test_done
 fi
+
 if ! test_have_prereq PERL
 then
     skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, perl not available'
diff --git a/t/t9402-git-cvsserver-refs.sh b/t/t9402-git-cvsserver-refs.sh
index 2ee41f9443..65f2ceedec 100755
--- a/t/t9402-git-cvsserver-refs.sh
+++ b/t/t9402-git-cvsserver-refs.sh
@@ -68,12 +68,12 @@ check_diff() {
 
 #########
 
-cvs >/dev/null 2>&1
-if test $? -ne 1
+if ! cvs version >/dev/null 2>&1
 then
 	skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, cvs not found'
 	test_done
 fi
+
 if ! test_have_prereq PERL
 then
 	skip_all='skipping git-cvsserver tests, perl not available'
diff --git a/t/test-lib-functions.sh b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
index 5fd5494ef1..879ee1ee59 100644
--- a/t/test-lib-functions.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
@@ -1248,8 +1248,7 @@ test_might_fail () {
 test_expect_code () {
 	want_code=$1
 	shift
-	"$@" 2>&7
-	exit_code=$?
+	exit_code=0; "$@" 2>&7 || exit_code=$?
 	if test $exit_code = $want_code
 	then
 		return 0
diff --git a/t/test-lib.sh b/t/test-lib.sh
index 70fd3e9baf..de7d9e7b92 100644
--- a/t/test-lib.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib.sh
@@ -143,8 +143,8 @@ export GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_INITIAL_BRANCH_NAME
 ################################################################
 # It appears that people try to run tests without building...
 GIT_BINARY="${GIT_TEST_INSTALLED:-$GIT_BUILD_DIR}/git$X"
-"$GIT_BINARY" >/dev/null
-if test $? != 1
+
+if ! "$GIT_BINARY" version >/dev/null
 then
 	if test -n "$GIT_TEST_INSTALLED"
 	then
@@ -454,8 +454,10 @@ then
 	# from any previous runs.
 	>"$GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE"
 
-	(GIT_TEST_TEE_STARTED=done ${TEST_SHELL_PATH} "$0" "$@" 2>&1;
-	 echo $? >"$TEST_RESULTS_BASE.exit") | tee -a "$GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE"
+	(
+		ret=0 && GIT_TEST_TEE_STARTED=done ${TEST_SHELL_PATH} "$0" "$@" 2>&1 || ret=$?
+		echo "$ret" >"$TEST_RESULTS_BASE.exit"
+	) | tee -a "$GIT_TEST_TEE_OUTPUT_FILE"
 	test "$(cat "$TEST_RESULTS_BASE.exit")" = 0
 	exit
 fi