diff --git a/test/issue2.js b/test/issue2.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..442b950
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/issue2.js
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+// https://github.com/rsms/markdown-wasm/issues/2
+const { checkHTMLResult, exit } = require("./testutil")
+
+// When MD4C_USE_UTF8 is not defined for md4c, the example input here fail to parse as a valid
+// reference link. In that case, instead of the expected output, we get "<p>[Á]</p>".
+checkHTMLResult("MD4C_USE_UTF8", `
+[á]: /url
+[Á]
+`, `<p><a href="/url">Á</a></p>\n`)
+
+exit()
diff --git a/test/issue5.js b/test/issue5.js
index 470f6f5..23a4ffe 100644
--- a/test/issue5.js
+++ b/test/issue5.js
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 // https://github.com/rsms/markdown-wasm/issues/5
-const libdir = process.argv.includes("-debug") ? "build/debug" : "dist"
-const md = require(`../${libdir}/markdown.node.js`)
+const { checkHTMLResult, exit } = require("./testutil")
 
 // this triggers the bug
 const input1 = Buffer.from(
@@ -38,59 +37,7 @@ const expected3 = Buffer.from(
   "</code></pre>\n"
 , "utf8")
 
-let fails = 0
-check("test1", expected1, input1)
-check("test2", expected2, input2)
-check("test3", expected3, input3)
-
-
-function check(name, expected, inputData) {
-  const actual = Buffer.from(md.parse(inputData, { asMemoryView: true }))
-
-  if (expected.compare(actual) == 0) {
-    console.log(`${name} OK`)
-    return
-  }
-  fails++
-  const line = "——————————————————————————————————————————————————"
-  const wave = "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
-  console.error(`${name} FAIL.`)
-
-  console.error(`\n\nExpected output:\n${line}`)
-  inspectBuf(expected, actual)
-  console.error(`${line}\n\nActual output:\n${line}`)
-  inspectBuf(actual, expected)
-  console.error(line)
-
-  function inspectBuf(buf, otherbuf) {
-    process.stderr.write(buf)
-    if (buf[buf.length-1] != 0x0a) {
-      process.stderr.write("<no-ending-line-break>\n")
-    }
-    console.error(wave)
-    const styleReset = "\x1b[22;39m"
-    const styleNone = s=>s
-    const styleDiff = process.stderr.isTTY ? s => "\x1b[1;33m"+s+styleReset : styleNone
-    const styleErr  = process.stderr.isTTY ? s => "\x1b[1;31m"+s+styleReset : styleNone
-
-    for (let i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
-      let b = buf[i]
-
-      let style = styleNone
-      if (b < 0x20 && b != 0x09 && b != 0x0A && b != 0x0D) {
-        // byte is unexpected control character (except TAB, CR, LF)
-        style = styleErr
-      } else if (otherbuf && otherbuf[i] != b) {
-        style = styleDiff
-      }
-
-      process.stderr.write(style(b.toString(16).padStart(2, '0')) + " ")
-
-      if (b == 0x0a) {
-        process.stderr.write("\n")
-      }
-    }
-  }
-}
-
-process.exit(fails > 0 ? 1 : 0)
+checkHTMLResult("test1", input1, expected1)
+checkHTMLResult("test2", input2, expected2)
+checkHTMLResult("test3", input3, expected3)
+exit()
diff --git a/test/test.sh b/test/test.sh
index ac3064f..1587cf6 100755
--- a/test/test.sh
+++ b/test/test.sh
@@ -2,4 +2,6 @@
 set -euo pipefail
 cd "$(dirname "$0")"
 
-node issue5.js "$@"
+for f in issue*.js; do
+  node "$f" "$@"
+done
diff --git a/test/testutil.js b/test/testutil.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1efa9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/testutil.js
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+const Path = require("path")
+
+const libdir = process.argv.includes("-debug") ? "build/debug" : "dist"
+const md = require(`../${libdir}/markdown.node.js`)
+
+const line = "——————————————————————————————————————————————————"
+const wave = "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
+
+
+exports.numFailures = 0
+
+
+exports.checkHTMLResult = function check(name, inputData, expectedOutputData) {
+  if (typeof inputData == "string") {
+    inputData = Buffer.from(inputData, "utf8")
+  }
+  if (typeof expectedOutputData == "string") {
+    expectedOutputData = Buffer.from(expectedOutputData, "utf8")
+  }
+  const actual = Buffer.from(md.parse(inputData, { asMemoryView: true }))
+  if (expectedOutputData.compare(actual) == 0) {
+    log(`${name} OK`)
+    return true
+  }
+  exports.numFailures++
+  logerr(`${name} FAIL`)
+  console.error(`\n\nExpected output:\n${line}`)
+  inspectBuf(expectedOutputData, actual)
+  console.error(`${line}\n\nActual output:\n${line}`)
+  inspectBuf(actual, expectedOutputData)
+  console.error(line)
+}
+
+
+exports.exit = function() {
+  process.exit(exports.numFailures > 0 ? 1 : 0)
+}
+
+
+exports.log = log
+exports.logerr = logerr
+
+const logprefix = Path.basename(process.argv[1])+":"
+
+function log() {
+  console.log.apply(console, [logprefix].concat([].slice.call(arguments)))
+}
+function logerr() {
+  console.error.apply(console, [logprefix].concat([].slice.call(arguments)))
+}
+
+
+exports.inspectBuf = inspectBuf
+
+function inspectBuf(buf, otherbuf) {
+  process.stderr.write(buf)
+  if (buf[buf.length-1] != 0x0a) {
+    process.stderr.write("<no-ending-line-break>\n")
+  }
+  console.error(wave)
+  const styleReset = "\x1b[22;39m"
+  const styleNone = s=>s
+  const styleDiff = process.stderr.isTTY ? s => "\x1b[1;33m"+s+styleReset : styleNone
+  const styleErr  = process.stderr.isTTY ? s => "\x1b[1;31m"+s+styleReset : styleNone
+
+  for (let i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
+    let b = buf[i]
+
+    let style = styleNone
+    if (b < 0x20 && b != 0x09 && b != 0x0A && b != 0x0D) {
+      // byte is unexpected control character (except TAB, CR, LF)
+      style = styleErr
+    } else if (otherbuf && otherbuf[i] != b) {
+      style = styleDiff
+    }
+
+    process.stderr.write(style(b.toString(16).padStart(2, '0')) + " ")
+
+    if (b == 0x0a) {
+      process.stderr.write("\n")
+    }
+  }
+}