diff --git a/tests/actofgod-test b/tests/actofgod-test
index 0afe1bc4..4f86a4bf 100755
--- a/tests/actofgod-test
+++ b/tests/actofgod-test
@@ -9,20 +9,6 @@ srcdir="$1"
 
 . "$srcdir"/tests/test-common.sh
 
-#
-# Currently expected to work only with thread package LWP, because:
-#
-# - Thread scheduling is reliably deterministic only with LWP
-# - Shell builtin kill appears not to do the job in MinGW
-# - The Windows server tries to run as service when -d isn't
-#   specified
-#
-# TODO address these shortcomings.
-#
-if [ `sed -n 's/empthread *:= *\(.*\)/\1/p' <GNUmakefile` != LWP ]
-then echo "Warning: test not expected to work with this thread package!" >&2
-fi
-
 create_sandbox
 cat >>sandbox/etc/empire/econfig <<EOF
 WORLD_X 24
diff --git a/tests/fire-test b/tests/fire-test
index c819c064..e4de869a 100755
--- a/tests/fire-test
+++ b/tests/fire-test
@@ -9,20 +9,6 @@ srcdir="$1"
 
 . "$srcdir"/tests/test-common.sh
 
-#
-# Currently expected to work only with thread package LWP, because:
-#
-# - Thread scheduling is reliably deterministic only with LWP
-# - Shell builtin kill appears not to do the job in MinGW
-# - The Windows server tries to run as service when -d isn't
-#   specified
-#
-# TODO address these shortcomings.
-#
-if [ `sed -n 's/empthread *:= *\(.*\)/\1/p' <GNUmakefile` != LWP ]
-then echo "Warning: test not expected to work with this thread package!" >&2
-fi
-
 create_sandbox
 cat >>sandbox/etc/empire/econfig <<EOF
 WORLD_X 32
diff --git a/tests/info-test b/tests/info-test
index 5fa1776e..09940f7e 100755
--- a/tests/info-test
+++ b/tests/info-test
@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@ srcdir="$1"
 
 create_sandbox
 
+# begin_test warns POSIX isn't expected to work, because thread
+# scheduling isn't reliably deterministic.  Not an issue for this
+# test, so suppress the warning.
+[ "$empthread" = POSIX ] && warn_empthread=
+
 begin_test <<EOF
 add 1 1 1 p
 des 0:2,0 -
diff --git a/tests/smoke-test b/tests/smoke-test
index 9b3681fc..acde5219 100755
--- a/tests/smoke-test
+++ b/tests/smoke-test
@@ -9,20 +9,6 @@ srcdir="$1"
 
 . "$srcdir"/tests/test-common.sh
 
-#
-# Currently expected to work only with thread package LWP, because:
-#
-# - Thread scheduling is reliably deterministic only with LWP
-# - Shell builtin kill appears not to do the job in MinGW
-# - The Windows server tries to run as service when -d isn't
-#   specified
-#
-# TODO address these shortcomings.
-#
-if [ `sed -n 's/empthread *:= *\(.*\)/\1/p' <GNUmakefile` != LWP ]
-then echo "Warning: smoke test not expected to work with this thread package!" >&2
-fi
-
 create_sandbox
 
 begin_test "$srcdir"/tests/smoke/fairland.xdump
diff --git a/tests/test-common.sh b/tests/test-common.sh
index 73b00210..80645206 100644
--- a/tests/test-common.sh
+++ b/tests/test-common.sh
@@ -8,6 +8,18 @@ fi
 test=${0##*/}
 test=${test%-test}
 
+empthread=`sed -n 's/empthread *:= *\(.*\)/\1/p' <GNUmakefile`
+warn_empthread=y
+
+check_empthread()
+{
+    if [ "$warn_empthread" ] && [ "$empthread" != "LWP" ]
+    then
+	echo "Warning: test not expected to work with thread package $empthread!" >&2
+	warn_empthread=
+    fi
+}
+
 create_sandbox()
 {
     rm -rf sandbox
@@ -33,6 +45,20 @@ start_server()
 {
     local pidfile=sandbox/var/empire/server.pid
     local timeout
+
+    #
+    # Currently expected to work only with thread package LWP,
+    # because:
+    #
+    # - Thread scheduling is reliably deterministic only with LWP
+    # - Shell builtin kill appears not to do the job in MinGW
+    # - The Windows server tries to run as service when -d isn't
+    #   specified
+    #
+    # TODO address these shortcomings.
+    #
+    check_empthread
+
     pid=
     trap 'if [ "$pid" ]; then kill -9 "$pid" 2>/dev/null || true; fi' EXIT
     src/server/emp_server -e sandbox/etc/empire/econfig -R 1 -s