diff --git a/tests/httpserver.pl b/tests/httpserver.pl
index 675aed5cf1341e67430d50244820d6e12e4f425e..ae1bcec286d8537bf681f6f57c78254edd6503f7 100755
--- a/tests/httpserver.pl
+++ b/tests/httpserver.pl
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ my $dir=".";
 my $port = 8999; # just a default
 my $ipv6;
 my $pid=".http.pid"; # name of the pidfile
+my $fork;
 do {
     if($ARGV[0] eq "-v") {
         $verbose=1;
@@ -20,6 +21,10 @@ do {
         $pid=$ARGV[1];
         shift @ARGV;
     }
+    elsif($ARGV[0] eq "--fork") {
+        $fork = $ARGV[0];
+        shift @ARGV;
+    }
     elsif($ARGV[0] =~ /^(\d+)$/) {
         $port = $1;
     }
@@ -28,4 +33,4 @@ do {
     }
 } while(shift @ARGV);
 
-exec("server/sws --pidfile $pid $ipv6$port $dir");
+exec("server/sws --pidfile $pid$fork $ipv6$port $dir");