diff --git a/test/xkeyboard-config-test.py.in b/test/xkeyboard-config-test.py.in
index 001f1b6..8c02125 100755
--- a/test/xkeyboard-config-test.py.in
+++ b/test/xkeyboard-config-test.py.in
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
 from multiprocessing import Pool
 
 
-verbose = True
+verbose = False
 
 DEFAULT_RULES_XML = '@XKB_CONFIG_ROOT@/rules/evdev.xml'
 
@@ -17,20 +17,24 @@ EXTRA_PATH = '@MESON_BUILD_ROOT@'
 os.environ['PATH'] = ':'.join([EXTRA_PATH, os.getenv('PATH')])
 
 
-def noop_progress_bar(x, total):
-    return x
+def escape(s):
+    return s.replace('"', '\\"')
 
 
 # The function generating the progress bar (if any).
-progress_bar = noop_progress_bar
-if os.isatty(sys.stdout.fileno()):
-    try:
-        from tqdm import tqdm
-        progress_bar = tqdm
+def create_progress_bar(verbose):
+    def noop_progress_bar(x, total):
+        return x
 
-        verbose = False
-    except ImportError:
-        pass
+    progress_bar = noop_progress_bar
+    if not verbose and os.isatty(sys.stdout.fileno()):
+        try:
+            from tqdm import tqdm
+            progress_bar = tqdm
+        except ImportError:
+            pass
+
+    return progress_bar
 
 
 def xkbcommontool(rmlvo):
@@ -172,6 +176,9 @@ def run(combos, tool, njobs):
 
 
 def main(args):
+    global progress_bar
+    global verbose
+
     tools = {
         'libxkbcommon': xkbcommontool,
         'xkbcomp': xkbcomp,
@@ -190,8 +197,12 @@ def main(args):
     parser.add_argument('--jobs', '-j', type=int,
                         default=os.cpu_count() * 4,
                         help='number of processes to use')
+    parser.add_argument('--verbose', '-v', default=False, action="store_true")
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
+    verbose = args.verbose
+    progress_bar = create_progress_bar(verbose)
+
     tool = tools[args.tool]
 
     combos = parse(args.path)