diff --git a/tests/globalconfig.pm b/tests/globalconfig.pm
index 54f5b6a25a..9fa436d8bb 100644
--- a/tests/globalconfig.pm
+++ b/tests/globalconfig.pm
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ BEGIN {
         $TUNITDIR
         $SRVDIR
         $listonly
-        $buildinfo
+        $ci
         $LOCKDIR
         $LOGDIR
         $memanalyze
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ our $verbose;         # 1 to show verbose test output
 our $torture;         # 1 to enable torture testing
 our $proxy_address;   # external HTTP proxy address
 our $listonly;        # only list the tests
-our $buildinfo;       # show the content of buildinfo.txt
+our $ci;              # show extra info useful in CI runs
 our $run_duphandle;   # run curl with --test-duphandle to verify handle duplication
 our $run_event_based; # run curl with --test-event to test the event API
 our $automakestyle;   # use automake-like test status output format
diff --git a/tests/runtests.pl b/tests/runtests.pl
index 638978eb8e..23379e16d3 100755
--- a/tests/runtests.pl
+++ b/tests/runtests.pl
@@ -873,7 +873,7 @@ sub checksystemfeatures {
            "* Disabled: $dis\n",
            "* Host: $hostname\n",
            "* System: $hosttype\n");
-    if($buildinfo) {
+    if($ci) {
         logmsg("* OS: $hostos\n",
                "* Perl: $^V ($^X)\n",
                "* diff: $havediff\n");
@@ -2426,7 +2426,7 @@ while(@ARGV) {
         $listonly=1;
     }
     elsif($ARGV[0] eq "--ci") {
-        $buildinfo=1;
+        $ci=1;
     }
     elsif($ARGV[0] =~ /^-j(.*)/) {
         # parallel jobs
@@ -2670,7 +2670,7 @@ if(!$listonly) {
 #######################################################################
 # Output information about the curl build
 #
-if(!$listonly && $buildinfo) {
+if(!$listonly && $ci) {
     if(open(my $fd, "<", "../buildinfo.txt")) {
         while(my $line = <$fd>) {
             chomp $line;