diff --git a/tests/data/DISABLED b/tests/data/DISABLED
index 1806a5dbe..2ff0fc49a 100644
--- a/tests/data/DISABLED
+++ b/tests/data/DISABLED
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@
 836
 882
 938
+# test 1182 kills the test servers as a side effect
+# of running runtests.pl as a child of itself sharing
+# some of the directories.
+1182
 1209
 1211
 # fnmatch differences are just too common to make testing them sensible
diff --git a/tests/data/Makefile.inc b/tests/data/Makefile.inc
index 485fd72b6..5b60d1606 100644
--- a/tests/data/Makefile.inc
+++ b/tests/data/Makefile.inc
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ test1144 test1145 test1146 test1147 test1148 test1149 test1150 test1151 \
 test1152 test1153 test1154 test1155 test1156 test1157 test1158 test1159 \
 test1160 test1161 test1162 test1163 test1164 test1165 test1166 test1167 \
 test1168 test1169 test1170 test1171 test1172 test1173 test1174 test1175 \
-test1176 test1177 test1178 test1179 test1180 test1181 \
+test1176 test1177 test1178 test1179 test1180 test1181 test1182 \
 \
 test1188 \
 \
diff --git a/tests/data/test1182 b/tests/data/test1182
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0e5a672d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/data/test1182
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+<testcase>
+<info>
+<keywords>
+runtests.pl
+</keywords>
+</info>
+
+#
+# Client-side
+<client>
+<server>
+none
+</server>
+<name>
+Verify that runtests.pl accepts an exclude file with the -E option
+</name>
+
+<command type="perl">
+%SRCDIR/runtests.pl -o TESTDIR=%SRCDIR/log/data -o LOGDIR=%SRCDIR/log/log -E %SRCDIR/log/test1182-exclude-file 1
+</command>
+<precheck>
+mkdir %SRCDIR/log/data ; mkdir %SRCDIR/log/log; cp %SRCDIR/data/test1 %SRCDIR/log/data; echo 'test:1:Test should not run for unit test 1182' > %SRCDIR/log/test1182-exclude-file
+</precheck>
+<postcheck>
+grep -q "Test should not run for unit test 1182" %SRCDIR/log/stdout1182
+</postcheck>
+
+</client>
+
+<verify>
+<errorcode>
+1
+</errorcode>
+</verify>
+
+</testcase>
diff --git a/tests/runtests.pl b/tests/runtests.pl
index 27800d817..8af6bfa97 100755
--- a/tests/runtests.pl
+++ b/tests/runtests.pl
@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@ my $HTTPUNIXPATH;        # HTTP server Unix domain socket path
 
 my $use_external_proxy = 0;
 my $proxy_address;
+my %custom_skip_reasons;
 
 my $SSHSRVMD5 = "[uninitialized]"; # MD5 of ssh server public key
 my $VERSION;             # curl's reported version number
@@ -3597,6 +3598,31 @@ sub singletest {
         }
     }
 
+    if (!$why && defined $custom_skip_reasons{test}{$testnum}) {
+        $why = $custom_skip_reasons{test}{$testnum};
+    }
+
+    if (!$why && defined $custom_skip_reasons{tool}) {
+        foreach my $tool (getpart("client", "tool")) {
+            foreach my $tool_skip_pattern (keys %{$custom_skip_reasons{tool}}) {
+                if ($tool =~ /$tool_skip_pattern/i) {
+                    $why = $custom_skip_reasons{tool}{$tool_skip_pattern};
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    if (!$why && defined $custom_skip_reasons{keyword}) {
+        foreach my $keyword (getpart("info", "keywords")) {
+            foreach my $keyword_skip_pattern (keys %{$custom_skip_reasons{keyword}}) {
+                if ($keyword =~ /$keyword_skip_pattern/i) {
+                    $why = $custom_skip_reasons{keyword}{$keyword_skip_pattern};
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+
     # test definition may instruct to (un)set environment vars
     # this is done this early, so that the precheck can use environment
     # variables and still bail out fine on errors
@@ -5328,6 +5354,28 @@ while(@ARGV) {
         # run the tests cases event based if possible
         $run_event_based=1;
     }
+    elsif($ARGV[0] eq "-E") {
+        # load additional reasons to skip tests
+        shift @ARGV;
+        my $exclude_file = $ARGV[0];
+        open(my $fd, "<", $exclude_file) or die "Couldn't open '$exclude_file': $!";
+        while(my $line = <$fd>) {
+            next if ($line =~ /^#/);
+            chomp $line;
+            my ($type, $patterns, $skip_reason) = split(/\s*:\s*/, $line, 3);
+
+            die "Unsupported type: $type\n" if($type !~ /^keyword|test|tool$/);
+
+            foreach my $pattern (split(/,/, $patterns)) {
+                if($type =~ /^test$/) {
+                    # Strip leading zeros in the test number
+                    $pattern = int($pattern);
+                }
+                $custom_skip_reasons{$type}{$pattern} = $skip_reason;
+            }
+        }
+        close($fd);
+    }
     elsif ($ARGV[0] eq "-g") {
         # run this test with gdb
         $gdbthis=1;
@@ -5439,6 +5487,7 @@ Usage: runtests.pl [options] [test selection(s)]
   -c path  use this curl executable
   -d       display server debug info
   -e       event-based execution
+  -E file  load the specified file to exclude certain tests
   -g       run the test case with gdb
   -gw      run the test case with gdb as a windowed application
   -h       this help text