diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/039 b/tests/qemu-iotests/039
index 859705f848..617f3977cc 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/039
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/039
@@ -47,13 +47,6 @@ _supported_os Linux
 _default_cache_mode "writethrough"
 _supported_cache_modes "writethrough"
 
-_subshell_exec()
-{
-    # Executing crashing commands in a subshell prevents information like the
-    # "Killed" line from being lost
-    (exec "$@")
-}
-
 size=128M
 
 echo
@@ -74,8 +67,8 @@ echo "== Creating a dirty image file =="
 IMGOPTS="compat=1.1,lazy_refcounts=on"
 _make_test_img $size
 
-_subshell_exec $QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x5a 0 512" \
-                        -c "sigraise $(kill -l KILL)" "$TEST_IMG" 2>&1 \
+$QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x5a 0 512" \
+         -c "sigraise $(kill -l KILL)" "$TEST_IMG" 2>&1 \
     | _filter_qemu_io
 
 # The dirty bit must be set
@@ -109,8 +102,8 @@ echo "== Opening a dirty image read/write should repair it =="
 IMGOPTS="compat=1.1,lazy_refcounts=on"
 _make_test_img $size
 
-_subshell_exec $QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x5a 0 512" \
-                        -c "sigraise $(kill -l KILL)" "$TEST_IMG" 2>&1 \
+$QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x5a 0 512" \
+         -c "sigraise $(kill -l KILL)" "$TEST_IMG" 2>&1 \
     | _filter_qemu_io
 
 # The dirty bit must be set
@@ -127,8 +120,8 @@ echo "== Creating an image file with lazy_refcounts=off =="
 IMGOPTS="compat=1.1,lazy_refcounts=off"
 _make_test_img $size
 
-_subshell_exec $QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x5a 0 512" \
-                        -c "sigraise $(kill -l KILL)" "$TEST_IMG" 2>&1 \
+$QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x5a 0 512" \
+         -c "sigraise $(kill -l KILL)" "$TEST_IMG" 2>&1 \
     | _filter_qemu_io
 
 # The dirty bit must not be set since lazy_refcounts=off
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/039.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/039.out
index d09751f9c8..b055670b8c 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/039.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/039.out
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ No errors were found on the image.
 Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=134217728
 wrote 512/512 bytes at offset 0
 512 bytes, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
-./039: Killed                  ( exec "$@" )
+./common.config: Killed                  ( exec "$QEMU_IO_PROG" $QEMU_IO_OPTIONS "$@" )
 incompatible_features     0x1
 ERROR cluster 5 refcount=0 reference=1
 ERROR OFLAG_COPIED data cluster: l2_entry=8000000000050000 refcount=0
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ read 512/512 bytes at offset 0
 Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=134217728
 wrote 512/512 bytes at offset 0
 512 bytes, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
-./039: Killed                  ( exec "$@" )
+./common.config: Killed                  ( exec "$QEMU_IO_PROG" $QEMU_IO_OPTIONS "$@" )
 incompatible_features     0x1
 ERROR cluster 5 refcount=0 reference=1
 Rebuilding refcount structure
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ incompatible_features     0x0
 Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=134217728
 wrote 512/512 bytes at offset 0
 512 bytes, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
-./039: Killed                  ( exec "$@" )
+./common.config: Killed                  ( exec "$QEMU_IO_PROG" $QEMU_IO_OPTIONS "$@" )
 incompatible_features     0x0
 No errors were found on the image.
 
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/061 b/tests/qemu-iotests/061
index 8d37f8a65c..1df887a01d 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/061
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/061
@@ -58,7 +58,8 @@ echo
 echo "=== Testing dirty version downgrade ==="
 echo
 IMGOPTS="compat=1.1,lazy_refcounts=on" _make_test_img 64M
-$QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x2a 0 128k" -c flush -c abort "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
+$QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x2a 0 128k" -c flush -c abort "$TEST_IMG" 2>&1 \
+    | _filter_qemu_io
 $PYTHON qcow2.py "$TEST_IMG" dump-header
 $QEMU_IMG amend -o "compat=0.10" "$TEST_IMG"
 $PYTHON qcow2.py "$TEST_IMG" dump-header
@@ -91,7 +92,8 @@ echo
 echo "=== Testing dirty lazy_refcounts=off ==="
 echo
 IMGOPTS="compat=1.1,lazy_refcounts=on" _make_test_img 64M
-$QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x2a 0 128k" -c flush -c abort "$TEST_IMG" | _filter_qemu_io
+$QEMU_IO -c "write -P 0x2a 0 128k" -c flush -c abort "$TEST_IMG" 2>&1 \
+    | _filter_qemu_io
 $PYTHON qcow2.py "$TEST_IMG" dump-header
 $QEMU_IMG amend -o "lazy_refcounts=off" "$TEST_IMG"
 $PYTHON qcow2.py "$TEST_IMG" dump-header
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/061.out b/tests/qemu-iotests/061.out
index 5ec248f79b..4505376433 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/061.out
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/061.out
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ No errors were found on the image.
 Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=67108864
 wrote 131072/131072 bytes at offset 0
 128 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
+./common.config: Aborted                 (core dumped) ( exec "$QEMU_IO_PROG" $QEMU_IO_OPTIONS "$@" )
 magic                     0x514649fb
 version                   3
 backing_file_offset       0x0
@@ -214,6 +215,7 @@ No errors were found on the image.
 Formatting 'TEST_DIR/t.IMGFMT', fmt=IMGFMT size=67108864
 wrote 131072/131072 bytes at offset 0
 128 KiB, X ops; XX:XX:XX.X (XXX YYY/sec and XXX ops/sec)
+./common.config: Aborted                 (core dumped) ( exec "$QEMU_IO_PROG" $QEMU_IO_OPTIONS "$@" )
 magic                     0x514649fb
 version                   3
 backing_file_offset       0x0
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/check b/tests/qemu-iotests/check
index 6d582033e8..c350f16b6a 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/check
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/check
@@ -231,10 +231,10 @@ FULL_HOST_DETAILS=`_full_platform_details`
 #FULL_MOUNT_OPTIONS=`_scratch_mount_options`
 
 cat <<EOF
-QEMU          -- $QEMU
-QEMU_IMG      -- $QEMU_IMG
-QEMU_IO       -- $QEMU_IO
-QEMU_NBD      -- $QEMU_NBD
+QEMU          -- "$QEMU_PROG" $QEMU_OPTIONS
+QEMU_IMG      -- "$QEMU_IMG_PROG" $QEMU_IMG_OPTIONS
+QEMU_IO       -- "$QEMU_IO_PROG" $QEMU_IO_OPTIONS
+QEMU_NBD      -- "$QEMU_NBD_PROG" $QEMU_NBD_OPTIONS
 IMGFMT        -- $FULL_IMGFMT_DETAILS
 IMGPROTO      -- $FULL_IMGPROTO_DETAILS
 PLATFORM      -- $FULL_HOST_DETAILS
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config
index e0bf896e46..596bb2b1e5 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config
@@ -103,10 +103,31 @@ if [ -z "$QEMU_NBD_PROG" ]; then
     export QEMU_NBD_PROG="`set_prog_path qemu-nbd`"
 fi
 
-export QEMU="$QEMU_PROG $QEMU_OPTIONS"
-export QEMU_IMG=$QEMU_IMG_PROG
-export QEMU_IO="$QEMU_IO_PROG $QEMU_IO_OPTIONS"
-export QEMU_NBD=$QEMU_NBD_PROG
+_qemu_wrapper()
+{
+    (exec "$QEMU_PROG" $QEMU_OPTIONS "$@")
+}
+
+_qemu_img_wrapper()
+{
+    (exec "$QEMU_IMG_PROG" $QEMU_IMG_OPTIONS "$@")
+}
+
+_qemu_io_wrapper()
+{
+    (exec "$QEMU_IO_PROG" $QEMU_IO_OPTIONS "$@")
+}
+
+_qemu_nbd_wrapper()
+{
+    (exec "$QEMU_NBD_PROG" $QEMU_NBD_OPTIONS "$@")
+}
+
+export QEMU=_qemu_wrapper
+export QEMU_IMG=_qemu_img_wrapper
+export QEMU_IO=_qemu_io_wrapper
+export QEMU_NBD=_qemu_nbd_wrapper
+
 default_machine=$($QEMU -machine \? | awk '/(default)/{print $1}')
 default_alias_machine=$($QEMU -machine \? |\
     awk -v var_default_machine="$default_machine"\)\
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
index 22d3514041..28e4beac15 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
@@ -439,7 +439,17 @@ _unsupported_imgopts()
 #
 _require_command()
 {
-    eval c=\$$1
+    if [ "$1" = "QEMU" ]; then
+        c=$QEMU_PROG
+    elif [ "$1" = "QEMU_IMG" ]; then
+        c=$QEMU_IMG_PROG
+    elif [ "$1" = "QEMU_IO" ]; then
+        c=$QEMU_IO_PROG
+    elif [ "$1" = "QEMU_NBD" ]; then
+        c=$QEMU_NBD_PROG
+    else
+        eval c=\$$1
+    fi
     [ -x "$c" ] || _notrun "$1 utility required, skipped this test"
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py b/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
index 1f913a1b2c..8e3419ff9e 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/iotests.py
@@ -31,11 +31,19 @@ import struct
 __all__ = ['imgfmt', 'imgproto', 'test_dir' 'qemu_img', 'qemu_io',
            'VM', 'QMPTestCase', 'notrun', 'main']
 
-# This will not work if arguments or path contain spaces but is necessary if we
+# This will not work if arguments contain spaces but is necessary if we
 # want to support the override options that ./check supports.
-qemu_img_args = os.environ.get('QEMU_IMG', 'qemu-img').strip().split(' ')
-qemu_io_args = os.environ.get('QEMU_IO', 'qemu-io').strip().split(' ')
-qemu_args = os.environ.get('QEMU', 'qemu').strip().split(' ')
+qemu_img_args = [os.environ.get('QEMU_IMG_PROG', 'qemu-img')]
+if os.environ.get('QEMU_IMG_OPTIONS'):
+    qemu_img_args += os.environ['QEMU_IMG_OPTIONS'].strip().split(' ')
+
+qemu_io_args = [os.environ.get('QEMU_IO_PROG', 'qemu-io')]
+if os.environ.get('QEMU_IO_OPTIONS'):
+    qemu_io_args += os.environ['QEMU_IO_OPTIONS'].strip().split(' ')
+
+qemu_args = [os.environ.get('QEMU_PROG', 'qemu')]
+if os.environ.get('QEMU_OPTIONS'):
+    qemu_args += os.environ['QEMU_OPTIONS'].strip().split(' ')
 
 imgfmt = os.environ.get('IMGFMT', 'raw')
 imgproto = os.environ.get('IMGPROTO', 'file')