diff --git a/test/test-bashfmt.sh b/test/test-bashfmt.sh
index b591ab68..1ff3a977 100755
--- a/test/test-bashfmt.sh
+++ b/test/test-bashfmt.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # check for any bash files that aren't properly formatted
 # TODO: this is hardly exhaustive
+
+. test/util.sh
+
 echo running test-bashfmt.sh
 set -o errexit
 set -o nounset
@@ -24,8 +27,5 @@ bad_files=$(
 )
 
 if [[ -n "${bad_files}" ]]; then
-	echo 'FAIL'
-	echo 'The following bash files are not properly formatted:'
-	echo "${bad_files}"
-	exit 1
+	fail_test "The following bash files are not properly formatted: ${bad_files}"
 fi
diff --git a/test/test-gofmt.sh b/test/test-gofmt.sh
index 920fd413..085fee87 100755
--- a/test/test-gofmt.sh
+++ b/test/test-gofmt.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # original version of this script from kubernetes project, under ALv2 license
+
+. test/util.sh
+
 echo running test-gofmt.sh
 set -o errexit
 set -o nounset
@@ -10,8 +13,7 @@ ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
 GO_VERSION=($(go version))
 
 if [[ -z $(echo "${GO_VERSION[2]}" | grep -E 'go1.2|go1.3|go1.4|go1.5|go1.6|go1.7|go1.8|devel') ]]; then
-	echo "Unknown go version '${GO_VERSION[2]}', failing gofmt."
-	exit 1
+	fail_test "Unknown go version '${GO_VERSION[2]}', failing gofmt."
 fi
 
 cd "${ROOT}"
@@ -23,8 +25,5 @@ find_files() {
 GOFMT="gofmt"	# we prefer to not use the -s flag, which is pretty annoying...
 bad_files=$(find_files | xargs $GOFMT -l)
 if [[ -n "${bad_files}" ]]; then
-	echo 'FAIL'
-	echo 'The following golang files are not properly formatted:'
-	echo "${bad_files}"
-	exit 1
+	fail_test "The following golang files are not properly formatted: ${bad_files}"
 fi
diff --git a/test/test-golint.sh b/test/test-golint.sh
index 19ecb759..5d61de00 100755
--- a/test/test-golint.sh
+++ b/test/test-golint.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # check that go lint passes or doesn't get worse by some threshold
+
+. test/util.sh
+
 echo running test-golint.sh
 # TODO: output a diff of what has changed in the golint output
 # FIXME: test a range of commits, since only the last patch is checked here
@@ -26,10 +29,10 @@ COUNT=`echo -e "$LINT" | wc -l`	# number of golint problems in current branch
 echo "$LINT"	# display the issues
 
 T=`mktemp --tmpdir -d tmp.XXX`
-[ "$T" = "" ] && exit 1
-cd $T || exit 1
+[ "$T" = "" ] && fail_test "Could not create tmpdir"
+cd $T || fail_test "Could not change into tmpdir $T"
 git clone --recursive "${ROOT}" 2>/dev/null	# make a copy
-cd "`basename ${ROOT}`" >/dev/null || exit 1
+cd "`basename ${ROOT}`" >/dev/null || fail_test "Could not determine basename for the repo root '$ROOT'"
 if [ "$HACK" != "" ]; then
 	# ensure master branch really exists when cloning from a branched repo!
 	git checkout master &>/dev/null && git checkout - &>/dev/null
@@ -62,7 +65,6 @@ echo "Curr. # of issues: $COUNT"
 echo "Issue count delta is: $DELTA %"
 if [ "$DELTA" -gt "$THRESHOLD" ]; then
 	echo "Maximum threshold is: $THRESHOLD %"
-	echo '`golint` FAIL'
-	exit 1
+	fail_test "`golint` - FAILED"
 fi
 echo PASS
diff --git a/test/test-govet.sh b/test/test-govet.sh
index 4595648f..debd24b7 100755
--- a/test/test-govet.sh
+++ b/test/test-govet.sh
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # check that go vet passes
+
+. test/util.sh
+
 echo running test-govet.sh
 ROOT="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && cd .. && pwd )"	# dir!
 cd "${ROOT}"
 
 for file in `find . -maxdepth 3 -type f -name '*.go' -not -path './old/*' -not -path './tmp/*'`; do
-	go vet "$file" && echo PASS || exit 1	# since it doesn't output an ok message on pass
-	grep 'log.' "$file" | grep '\\n"' && echo 'no \n needed in log.Printf()' && exit 1 || echo PASS	# no \n needed in log.Printf()
-	grep 'case _ = <-' "$file" && echo 'case _ = <- can be simplified to: case <-' && exit 1 || echo PASS	# this can be simplified
-	grep -Ei "[\/]+[\/]+[ ]*+(FIXME[^:]|TODO[^:]|XXX[^:])" "$file" && echo 'Token is missing a colon' && exit 1 || echo PASS	# tokens must end with a colon
+	go vet "$file" && echo PASS || fail_test "go vet did not pass"	# since it doesn't output an ok message on pass
+	grep 'log.' "$file" | grep '\\n"' && fail_test 'no \n needed in log.Printf()' || echo PASS	# no \n needed in log.Printf()
+	grep 'case _ = <-' "$file" && fail_test 'case _ = <- can be simplified to: case <-' || echo PASS	# this can be simplified
+	grep -Ei "[\/]+[\/]+[ ]*+(FIXME[^:]|TODO[^:]|XXX[^:])" "$file" && fail_test 'Token is missing a colon' || echo PASS	# tokens must end with a colon
 done
diff --git a/test/test-headerfmt.sh b/test/test-headerfmt.sh
index 7f5fcbcd..6b26c963 100755
--- a/test/test-headerfmt.sh
+++ b/test/test-headerfmt.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # check that headers are properly formatted
+
+. test/util.sh
+
 echo running test-headerfmt.sh
 ROOT="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && cd .. && pwd )"	# dir!
 FILE="${ROOT}/main.go"	# file headers should match main.go
@@ -23,8 +26,5 @@ bad_files=$(
 )
 
 if [[ -n "${bad_files}" ]]; then
-	echo 'FAIL'
-	echo 'The following file headers are not properly formatted:'
-	echo "${bad_files}"
-	exit 1
+	fail_test "The following file headers are not properly formatted: ${bad_files}"
 fi
diff --git a/test/test-shell.sh b/test/test-shell.sh
index e9d039a3..2ade9cb6 100755
--- a/test/test-shell.sh
+++ b/test/test-shell.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # simple test harness for testing mgmt
 # NOTE: this will rm -rf /tmp/mgmt/
+
+. test/util.sh
+
 if [ "$1" == "--help" ] || [ "$1" == "-h" ]; then
 	echo -e "usage: ./"`basename $0`" [[--help] | <test>]"
 	echo -e "where: <test> is empty to run all tests, or <file>.sh from shell/ dir"
@@ -65,9 +68,7 @@ rm -f "$MGMT"
 make clean
 
 if [ "$count" = '0' ]; then
-	echo 'FAIL'
-	echo 'No tests were run!'
-	exit 1
+	fail_test 'No tests were run!'
 fi
 
 # display errors
diff --git a/test/test-yamlfmt.sh b/test/test-yamlfmt.sh
index 0d9bca5a..37549b7c 100755
--- a/test/test-yamlfmt.sh
+++ b/test/test-yamlfmt.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 # check for any yaml files that aren't properly formatted
+
+. test/util.sh
+
 echo running test-yamlfmt.sh
 set -o errexit
 set -o nounset
@@ -14,14 +17,15 @@ ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
 
 RUBY=`which ruby 2>/dev/null`
 if [ -z $RUBY ]; then
-	echo "The 'ruby' utility can't be found."
-	exit 1
+	fail_test "The 'ruby' utility can't be found."
 fi
 
-$RUBY -e "require 'yaml'" 2>/dev/null || (
-	echo "The ruby 'yaml' library can't be found."
-	exit 1
-)
+$RUBY -e "require 'yaml'" 2>/dev/null || fail_test "The ruby 'yaml' library can't be found."
+
+if $RUBY -e "puts RUBY_VERSION" | grep -q ^1 ; then
+	echo "SKIPPING - cannot test YAML formatting with Ruby 1.x"
+	exit 0
+fi
 
 cd "${ROOT}"
 
@@ -38,8 +42,5 @@ bad_files=$(
 )
 
 if [[ -n "${bad_files}" ]]; then
-	echo 'FAIL'
-	echo 'The following yaml files are not properly formatted:'
-	echo "${bad_files}"
-	exit 1
+	fail_test "The following yaml files are not properly formatted: ${bad_files}"
 fi
diff --git a/test/util.sh b/test/util.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..da922a17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/util.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# common settings and functions for test scripts
+
+fail_test()
+{
+	echo "FAIL: $@"
+	exit 1
+}