diff --git a/test/sharness/lib/iptb-lib.sh b/test/sharness/lib/iptb-lib.sh
index 5f49fdef4..6efb4b8c7 100644
--- a/test/sharness/lib/iptb-lib.sh
+++ b/test/sharness/lib/iptb-lib.sh
@@ -3,16 +3,17 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2014, 2016 Jeromy Johnson, Christian Couder
 # MIT Licensed; see the LICENSE file in this repository.
 
-export IPTB_ROOT="`pwd`/.iptb"
+export IPTB_ROOT="$(pwd)/.iptb"
 
 ipfsi() {
 	dir="$1"
 	shift
-	IPFS_PATH="$IPTB_ROOT/$dir" ipfs $@
+	IPFS_PATH="$IPTB_ROOT/$dir" ipfs "$@"
 }
 
 check_has_connection() {
-	node=$1
-	ipfsi $node swarm peers | grep ipfs > /dev/null
+	node="$1"
+	ipfsi "$node" swarm peers >"swarm_peers_$node" &&
+	grep "ipfs" "swarm_peers_$node" >/dev/null
 }