diff --git a/tests/README.md b/tests/README.md
index 65af2a0bd9..6f027bddeb 100644
--- a/tests/README.md
+++ b/tests/README.md
@@ -8,6 +8,41 @@ SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
 
 # Running
 
+  See the "Requires to run" section for prerequisites.
+
+  In the root of the curl repository:
+
+    ./configure && make && make test
+
+  To run a specific set of tests (e.g. 303 and 410):
+
+    make test TFLAGS="303 410"
+
+  To run the tests faster, pass the -j (parallelism) flag:
+
+    make test TFLAGS="-j10"
+
+  "make test" builds the test suite support code and invokes the 'runtests.pl'
+  perl script to run all the tests. The value of `TFLAGS` is passed
+  directly to 'runtests.pl'.
+
+  When you run tests via make, the flags `-a` and `-s` are passed, meaning
+  to continue running tests even after one fails, and to emit short output.
+
+  If you'd like to not use those flags, you can run 'runtests.pl' directly.
+  You must `chdir` into the tests directory, then you can run it like so:
+
+    ./runtests.pl 303 410
+
+  You must have run `make test` at least once first to build the support code.
+
+  To see what flags are available for runtests.pl, and what output it emits, run:
+
+    man ./tests/runtests.1
+
+  After a test fails, examine the tests/log directory for stdout, stderr, and
+  output from the servers used in the test.
+
 ## Requires to run
 
   - perl (and a unix-style shell)
@@ -75,44 +110,6 @@ SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
   used, set the environment variable `NGHTTPX`. The default can also be
   changed by specifying `--with-test-nghttpx=<path>` as argument to `configure`.
 
-### Run
-
-  `./configure && make && make test`. This builds the test suite support code
-  and invokes the 'runtests.pl' perl script to run all the tests. Edit the top
-  variables of that script in case you have some specific needs, or run the
-  script manually (after the support code has been built).
-
-  The script breaks on the first test that doesn't do OK. Use `-a` to prevent
-  the script from aborting on the first error. Run the script with `-v` for
-  more verbose output. Use `-d` to run the test servers with debug output
-  enabled as well. Specifying `-k` keeps all the log files generated by the
-  test intact.
-
-  Use `-s` for shorter output, or pass test numbers to run specific tests only
-  (like `./runtests.pl 3 4` to test 3 and 4 only). It also supports test case
-  ranges with 'to', as in `./runtests.pl 3 to 9` which runs the seven tests
-  from 3 to 9. Any test numbers starting with ! are disabled, as are any test
-  numbers found in the files `data/DISABLED` or `data/DISABLED.local` (one per
-  line). The latter is meant for local temporary disables and will be ignored
-  by git.
-
-  Test cases mentioned in `DISABLED` can still be run if `-f` is provided.
-
-  When `-s` is not present, each successful test will display on one line the
-  test number and description and on the next line a set of flags, the test
-  result, current test sequence, total number of tests to be run and an
-  estimated amount of time to complete the test run. The flags consist of
-  these letters describing what is checked in this test:
-
-    s stdout
-    d data
-    u upload
-    p protocol
-    o output
-    e exit code
-    m memory
-    v valgrind
-
 ### Shell startup scripts
 
   Tests which use the ssh test server, SCP/SFTP/SOCKS tests, might be badly
diff --git a/tests/runtests.1 b/tests/runtests.1
index 571e5ce062..6d895d2b9b 100644
--- a/tests/runtests.1
+++ b/tests/runtests.1
@@ -53,6 +53,35 @@ this keyword. Remember that the exclamation marks and spaces will need to be
 quoted somehow when entered at many command shells.
 
 Prefix a keyword with a tilde (~) to still run it, but ignore the results.
+
+.SH "OUTPUT"
+
+When running without -s (short output), for instance when running runtests.pl
+directly rather than via make, each test will emits a pair of lines like this:
+
+Test 0045...[simple HTTP Location: without protocol in initial URL]
+--pd---e-v- OK (45  out of 1427, remaining: 16:08, took 6.188s, duration: 00:31)
+
+the first line contains the test number and a description. On the second line,
+the characters at the beginning are flags indicating which aspects of curl's
+behavior were checked by the test:
+
+    s stdout
+    r stderr
+    p protocol
+    d data
+    u upload
+    P proxy
+    o output
+    e exit code
+    m memory
+    v valgrind
+    E the test was run event-based
+
+The remainder of the second line contains the test result, current test sequence,
+total number of tests to be run and an estimated amount of time to complete the
+test run.
+
 .SH OPTIONS
 .IP "-a"
 Continue running the rest of the test cases even if one test fails. By
@@ -91,9 +120,6 @@ start.
 Run the given test(s) with gdb as a windowed application.
 .IP "-h, --help"
 Displays a help text about this program's command line options.
-.IP "-k"
-Keep output and log files in log/ after a test run, even if no error was
-detected. Useful for debugging.
 .IP "-j[num]"
 Spawn num processes to run tests. This defaults to 0 to run tests serially
 within a single process. Using a number greater than one allows multiple tests
@@ -101,6 +127,9 @@ to run in parallel, speeding up a test run. The optimum number is dependent on
 the system and set of tests to run, but 7*number of CPU cores is a good figure
 to start with, or 1.3*number of CPU cores if Valgrind is in use. Enabling
 parallel tests is not recommended in conjunction with the \-g option.
+.IP "-k"
+Keep output and log files in log/ after a test run, even if no error was
+detected. Useful for debugging.
 .IP "-L <file>"
 Load and execute the specified file which should contain perl code.
 This option allows one to change \fIruntests.pl\fP behaviour by overwriting
diff --git a/tests/runtests.pl b/tests/runtests.pl
index 32e0680378..e7b9f01f6a 100755
--- a/tests/runtests.pl
+++ b/tests/runtests.pl
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 #
 ###########################################################################
 
+# For documentation, run `man ./runtests.1` and see README.md.
+
 # Experimental hooks are available to run tests remotely on machines that
 # are able to run curl but are unable to run the test harness.
 # The following sections need to be modified:
@@ -1503,7 +1505,7 @@ sub singletest_check {
 
     }
     else {
-        $ok .= "-"; # protocol not checked
+        $ok .= "-"; # proxy not checked
     }
 
     my $outputok;