diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/kselftest/runner.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/kselftest/runner.sh
index cc9c846585f05de2bd6670dc64931ab3f553d351..a9ba782d8ca0fd4af58389bb76325aab745ed775 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/kselftest/runner.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/kselftest/runner.sh
@@ -33,9 +33,9 @@ tap_timeout()
 {
 	# Make sure tests will time out if utility is available.
 	if [ -x /usr/bin/timeout ] ; then
-		/usr/bin/timeout --foreground "$kselftest_timeout" "$1"
+		/usr/bin/timeout --foreground "$kselftest_timeout" $1
 	else
-		"$1"
+		$1
 	fi
 }
 
@@ -65,17 +65,25 @@ run_one()
 
 	TEST_HDR_MSG="selftests: $DIR: $BASENAME_TEST"
 	echo "# $TEST_HDR_MSG"
-	if [ ! -x "$TEST" ]; then
-		echo -n "# Warning: file $TEST is "
-		if [ ! -e "$TEST" ]; then
-			echo "missing!"
-		else
-			echo "not executable, correct this."
-		fi
+	if [ ! -e "$TEST" ]; then
+		echo "# Warning: file $TEST is missing!"
 		echo "not ok $test_num $TEST_HDR_MSG"
 	else
+		cmd="./$BASENAME_TEST"
+		if [ ! -x "$TEST" ]; then
+			echo "# Warning: file $TEST is not executable"
+
+			if [ $(head -n 1 "$TEST" | cut -c -2) = "#!" ]
+			then
+				interpreter=$(head -n 1 "$TEST" | cut -c 3-)
+				cmd="$interpreter ./$BASENAME_TEST"
+			else
+				echo "not ok $test_num $TEST_HDR_MSG"
+				return
+			fi
+		fi
 		cd `dirname $TEST` > /dev/null
-		((((( tap_timeout ./$BASENAME_TEST 2>&1; echo $? >&3) |
+		((((( tap_timeout "$cmd" 2>&1; echo $? >&3) |
 			tap_prefix >&4) 3>&1) |
 			(read xs; exit $xs)) 4>>"$logfile" &&
 		echo "ok $test_num $TEST_HDR_MSG") ||