diff --git a/configure/RULES.Db b/configure/RULES.Db
index 436c05a9a..45acff5da 100644
--- a/configure/RULES.Db
+++ b/configure/RULES.Db
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ ACTIONS += build
 ACTIONS += install
 ACTIONS += buildInstall
 ACTIONS += browse
-ACTIONS += runtests
+ACTIONS += runtests tapfiles
 
 actionArchTargets = $(foreach x, $(ACTIONS),\ $(foreach arch,$(BUILD_ARCHS), $(x)$(DIVIDER)$(arch)))
 
diff --git a/configure/RULES_ARCHS b/configure/RULES_ARCHS
index eba7cfab5..1d4c2d4c1 100644
--- a/configure/RULES_ARCHS
+++ b/configure/RULES_ARCHS
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ ACTIONS += build
 ACTIONS += install
 ACTIONS += buildInstall
 ACTIONS += browse
-ACTIONS += runtests
+ACTIONS += runtests tapfiles
 #ACTIONS += rebuild
 
 actionPart = $(word 1, $(subst $(DIVIDER), ,$@))
diff --git a/configure/RULES_BUILD b/configure/RULES_BUILD
index 36e21f547..bba3cdc73 100644
--- a/configure/RULES_BUILD
+++ b/configure/RULES_BUILD
@@ -96,6 +96,8 @@ ifneq (,$(strip $(TESTS)))
 TARGETS += testspec
 endif
 
+TAPFILES += $(TESTSCRIPTS:.t=.tap)
+
 #---------------------------------------------------------------
 #   Libraries 
 #
@@ -142,7 +144,8 @@ clean::
 	@$(RM) *.i *$(OBJ) *.a $(TESTPRODNAME) $(LIBNAME) $(SHRLIBNAME) \
 	$(INC) $(TARGETS) $(DLL_LINK_LIBNAME) $(TDS) \
 	*.out MakefileInclude  $(LOADABLE_SHRLIBNAME) *.manifest *.exp \
-	$(COMMON_INC) $(HDEPENDS_FILES) $(PRODTARGETS) $(TESTSCRIPTS)
+	$(COMMON_INC) $(HDEPENDS_FILES) $(PRODTARGETS) \
+	$(TESTSCRIPTS) $(TAPFILES)
 ifdef RES
 	@$(RM) *$(RES)
 endif
@@ -338,16 +341,22 @@ testspec: $(TESTSCRIPTS)
 	$(if $^, @echo Tests: $^ >> $@)
 	$(if $(TESTSPEC_$(OS_CLASS)), @echo "Harness: $(TESTSPEC_$(OS_CLASS))" >> $@)
 
+tapfiles: $(TESTSCRIPTS) $(TAPFILES)
+
+# A .tap file is the output from running the associated test script
+%.tap: %.t
+	-$(PERL) $< -tap > $@
+
 # If there's a perl test script (.plt) available, use it
 %.t: ../%.plt
 	@$(RM) $@
-	@$(CP) $< $@
+	$(CP) $< $@
 
-# Some versions of Test::Harness expect test programs in perl only.
+# Test programs (.t files) must be written in Perl.
 # Generate a perl program to exec the real test binary.
-%.t: %$(EXE)
+%.t: %$(EXE) $(TOOLS)/makeTestfile.pl
 	@$(RM) $@
-	@$(PERL) $(TOOLS)/makeTestfile.pl $@ $<
+	$(PERL) $(TOOLS)/makeTestfile.pl $@ $<
 
 #---------------------------------------------------------------
 ## Install rules for BIN_INSTALLS and LIB_INSTALLS
diff --git a/configure/RULES_DIRS b/configure/RULES_DIRS
index edf200ad6..8fd3f63b6 100644
--- a/configure/RULES_DIRS
+++ b/configure/RULES_DIRS
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@
 
 
 ARCHS += $(BUILD_ARCHS)
-ACTIONS += inc build install buildInstall clean realclean archclean runtests
+ACTIONS += inc build install buildInstall clean realclean archclean
+ACTIONS += runtests tapfiles
 
 dirPart = $(join $(dir $@), $(word 1, $(subst $(DIVIDER), ,$(notdir $@))))
 
diff --git a/documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.html b/documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.html
index bd0a375ad..f95eb2e03 100644
--- a/documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.html
+++ b/documentation/RELEASE_NOTES.html
@@ -13,6 +13,15 @@
 
 <!-- Insert new items immediately below here ... -->
 
+<h3>Back-ported the <q>tapfiles</q> build target from 3.15</h3>
+
+<p>This GNUmake target runs the same tests as the <q>runtests</q> target, but
+instead of summarizing or displaying the output for each test script it creates
+a <q>.tap</q> file inside the architecture build directory which contains the
+detailed test output. The output file can be parsed by continuous integration
+packages such as <a href="http://www.jenkins-ci.org/">Jenkins</a> to show the
+test results.</p>
+
 <h3>Fix buffer overflow in epicsStrnRawFromEscaped()</h3>
 
 <p>Launchpad <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1388313">bug
diff --git a/src/tools/makeTestfile.pl b/src/tools/makeTestfile.pl
index 80f6f4d38..a037eb71c 100644
--- a/src/tools/makeTestfile.pl
+++ b/src/tools/makeTestfile.pl
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 # because some versions of the Perl test harness can only run test scripts
 # that are actually written in Perl.  The script we generate execs the
 # real test program which must be in the same directory as the .t file.
+# If the script is given an argument -tap it sets HARNESS_ACTIVE in the
+# environment to make the epicsUnitTest code generate strict TAP output.
 
 # Usage: makeTestfile.pl target.t executable
 #     target.t is the name of the Perl script to generate
@@ -25,6 +27,7 @@ open(my $OUT, '>', $target) or die "Can't create $target: $!\n";
 
 print $OUT <<EOF;
 #!/usr/bin/perl
+\$ENV{HARNESS_ACTIVE} = 1 if scalar \@ARGV && shift eq '-tap';
 exec './$exe' or die 'exec failed';
 EOF