diff --git a/tests/gpgscm/init.scm b/tests/gpgscm/init.scm
index 66bec0f79..4c8c5125c 100644
--- a/tests/gpgscm/init.scm
+++ b/tests/gpgscm/init.scm
@@ -654,8 +654,11 @@
 ;; resource management a chance to clean up.
 (define *interpreter-exit* (gensym))
 
+(define *exit-status* 0)
+
 ;; Terminate the process returning STATUS to the parent.
 (define (exit status)
+  (set! *exit-status* status)
   (throw "interpreter exit" *interpreter-exit* status))
 
 ;; A list of functions run at interpreter shutdown.
diff --git a/tests/gpgscm/tests.scm b/tests/gpgscm/tests.scm
index 51410020e..dbeda74d7 100644
--- a/tests/gpgscm/tests.scm
+++ b/tests/gpgscm/tests.scm
@@ -288,7 +288,7 @@
 ;; Otherwise this works like mkdtemp.
 (define (mkdtemp-autoremove . components)
   (let ((dir (apply mkdtemp components)))
-    (atexit (lambda () (unlink-recursively dir)))
+    (atexit (lambda () (if (= *exit-status* 0) (unlink-recursively dir))))
     dir))
 
 (define-macro (with-temporary-working-directory . expressions)