diff --git a/Stackage/InstallInfo.hs b/Stackage/InstallInfo.hs
index b3116a5b..d35b2aac 100644
--- a/Stackage/InstallInfo.hs
+++ b/Stackage/InstallInfo.hs
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ getInstallInfo = do
         { iiCore = totalCore
         , iiPackages = Map.map fst final
         , iiOptionalCore = Map.fromList $ map (\(PackageIdentifier p v) -> (p, v)) $ Set.toList $ hplibs hp
+        , iiPackageDB = pdb
         }
 
 showDep :: (PackageName, (Version, [PackageName])) -> String
diff --git a/Stackage/LoadDatabase.hs b/Stackage/LoadDatabase.hs
index 64064b2b..0f179334 100644
--- a/Stackage/LoadDatabase.hs
+++ b/Stackage/LoadDatabase.hs
@@ -58,21 +58,24 @@ loadPackageDB core deps = do
                             | not $ withinRange v vrange -> return pdb
                         _ ->
                             case Tar.entryContent e of
-                                Tar.NormalFile bs _ -> return $ mappend pdb $ PackageDB $ Map.singleton p PackageInfo
-                                    { piVersion = v
-                                    , piDeps = parseDeps bs
-                                    }
+                                Tar.NormalFile bs _ -> do
+                                    let (deps', hasTests) = parseDeps bs
+                                    return $ mappend pdb $ PackageDB $ Map.singleton p PackageInfo
+                                        { piVersion = v
+                                        , piDeps = deps'
+                                        , piHasTests = hasTests
+                                        }
                                 _ -> return pdb
 
     parseDeps lbs =
         case parsePackageDescription $ L8.unpack lbs of
-            ParseOk _ gpd -> mconcat
+            ParseOk _ gpd -> (mconcat
                 [ maybe mempty (go gpd) $ condLibrary gpd
                 , mconcat $ map (go gpd . snd) $ condExecutables gpd
                 , mconcat $ map (go gpd . snd) $ condTestSuites gpd
                 , mconcat $ map (go gpd . snd) $ condBenchmarks gpd
-                ]
-            _ -> mempty
+                ], not $ null $ condTestSuites gpd)
+            _ -> (mempty, defaultHasTestSuites)
       where
         go gpd tree
             = Set.unions
diff --git a/Stackage/Test.hs b/Stackage/Test.hs
index 80cd658f..675b831c 100644
--- a/Stackage/Test.hs
+++ b/Stackage/Test.hs
@@ -16,16 +16,18 @@ import           System.FilePath    ((<.>), (</>))
 import           System.IO          (IOMode (WriteMode, AppendMode),
                                      withBinaryFile)
 import           System.Process     (runProcess, waitForProcess)
-import Distribution.Text
-import Data.Maybe
 
 runTestSuites :: InstallInfo -> IO ()
 runTestSuites ii = do
     let testdir = "runtests"
     rm_r testdir
     createDirectory testdir
-    allPass <- foldM (runTestSuite testdir) True $ Map.toList $ iiPackages ii
+    allPass <- foldM (runTestSuite testdir) True $ filter hasTestSuites $ Map.toList $ iiPackages ii
     unless allPass $ error $ "There were failures, please see the logs in " ++ testdir
+  where
+    PackageDB pdb = iiPackageDB ii
+
+    hasTestSuites (name, _) = maybe defaultHasTestSuites piHasTests $ Map.lookup name pdb
 
 -- | Separate for the PATH environment variable
 pathSep :: Char
diff --git a/Stackage/Types.hs b/Stackage/Types.hs
index a9d18bc9..76bac501 100644
--- a/Stackage/Types.hs
+++ b/Stackage/Types.hs
@@ -25,8 +25,9 @@ instance Monoid PackageDB where
             | otherwise = pi2
 
 data PackageInfo = PackageInfo
-    { piVersion :: Version
-    , piDeps    :: Set PackageName
+    { piVersion  :: Version
+    , piDeps     :: Set PackageName
+    , piHasTests :: Bool
     }
     deriving (Show, Eq, Ord)
 
@@ -46,4 +47,5 @@ data InstallInfo = InstallInfo
       -- ^ This is intended to hold onto packages which might be automatically
       -- provided in the global package database. In practice, this would be
       -- Haskell Platform packages provided by distributions.
+    , iiPackageDB :: PackageDB
     }
diff --git a/Stackage/Util.hs b/Stackage/Util.hs
index 8f146508..9bb344b0 100644
--- a/Stackage/Util.hs
+++ b/Stackage/Util.hs
@@ -61,3 +61,10 @@ getPackageVersion e = do
     Just (package, version)
   where
     fp = TarEntry.fromTarPathToPosixPath $ TarEntry.entryTarPath e
+
+-- | If a package cannot be parsed or is not found, the default value for
+-- whether it has a test suite. We default to @True@ since, worst case
+-- scenario, this just means a little extra time trying to run a suite that's
+-- not there. Defaulting to @False@ would result in silent failures.
+defaultHasTestSuites :: Bool
+defaultHasTestSuites = True