diff --git a/common-build.xml b/common-build.xml
index 17cd9bf21..3a47cd1e5 100644
--- a/common-build.xml
+++ b/common-build.xml
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@
 	<property name="ivy.resource" value="org/apache/ivy/ant/antlib.xml" />
 	<available resource="${ivy.resource}" property="ivy.available" />
 	<property name="ivy.default.configuration" value="*"/>
+    <property name="ivy.sync" value="true"/>
 
 	<property name="junit.jar" value="junit-4.10.jar"/>
 	<property name="junit-location.jar" value="${common.dir}/lib/${junit.jar}"/>
@@ -91,7 +92,7 @@
 	<property name="tests.timezone" value="random" />
 	<property name="tests.directory" value="random" />
 	<property name="tests.linedocsfile" value="europarl.lines.txt.gz" />
-	<property name="tests.loggingfile" value="/dev/null"/>
+    <property name="tests.loggingfile" value="${common.dir}/logging.properties"/>
 	<property name="tests.nightly" value="false" />
 	<property name="tests.weekly" value="false" />
 	<property name="tests.slow" value="true" />
@@ -559,6 +560,14 @@
 	  <!-- default -->
 	  <property name="tests.showSuccess" value="false"/>
 
+      <condition property="tests.showOutput" value="always">
+        <or> 
+          <isset property="tests.class" />
+          <isset property="tests.method" />
+        </or>
+      </condition>
+      <property name="tests.showOutput" value="onerror"/>
+
 	<!-- Test macro using junit4. -->
 	<macrodef name="test-macro" description="Executes junit tests.">
 		<attribute name="junit.output.dir" default="${junit.output.dir}"/>
@@ -705,6 +714,7 @@
 				<syspropertyset>
 					<propertyref prefix="tests.maxfailures" />
 					<propertyref prefix="tests.failfast" />
+					<propertyref prefix="tests.badapples" />
 				</syspropertyset>
 
 				<!-- Pass randomized settings to the forked JVM. -->
@@ -726,8 +736,7 @@
 					<junit4:report-text
 	                    showThrowable="true" 
 	                    showStackTraces="true" 
-	                    showOutputStream="true" 
-	                    showErrorStream="true"
+                        showOutput="${tests.showOutput}"
 
 	                    showStatusOk="${tests.showSuccess}"
 	                    showStatusError="${tests.showError}"
@@ -747,8 +756,7 @@
 	                    file="@{junit.output.dir}/tests-report.txt"
 	                    showThrowable="true" 
 	                    showStackTraces="true" 
-	                    showOutputStream="true" 
-	                    showErrorStream="true"
+                        showOutput="${tests.showOutput}"
 
 	                    showStatusOk="true"
 	                    showStatusError="true"
@@ -764,8 +772,7 @@
 	                    file="@{junit.output.dir}/tests-failures.txt"
 	                    showThrowable="true" 
 	                    showStackTraces="true" 
-	                    showOutputStream="true" 
-	                    showErrorStream="true"
+                        showOutput="${tests.showOutput}"
 
 	                    showStatusOk="false"
 	                    showStatusError="true"
@@ -778,10 +785,17 @@
 
 					<!-- Emit the information about tests timings (could be used to determine
 	                     the slowest tests or for reuse in balancing). -->
+
 					<junit4:report-execution-times file="@{junit.output.dir}/tests-timehints.txt" historyLength="5" />
 
-					<junit4:report-ant-xml dir="@{junit.output.dir}" />
-					<junit4:report-json file="@{junit.output.dir}/tests-report-${ant.project.name}/index.html" />
+                    <!-- ANT-compatible XMLs for jenkins records etc. -->
+                    <junit4:report-ant-xml dir="@{junit.output.dir}" outputStreams="no" />
+
+                    <!--
+                    Enable if you wish to have a nice HTML5 report.
+                    <junit4:report-json file="@{junit.output.dir}/tests-report-${ant.project.name}/index.html" outputStreams="no" />
+                    -->
+
 				</listeners>
 			    
 				<!-- Input test classes. -->
diff --git a/logging.properties b/logging.properties
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f54ee74f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/logging.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+
+# root handler
+handlers=java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler
+
+# root logger's cutoff threshold.
+.level=INFO
+
+# configure console handler to emit everything in the default format.
+java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level=FINEST
+java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.formatter=java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter