diff --git a/HACKING.rst b/HACKING.rst
index a546f8c..eafa81b 100644
--- a/HACKING.rst
+++ b/HACKING.rst
@@ -153,6 +153,19 @@
                              kwarg2=dict_of_numbers)
 
 
+Test Skips
+----------
+If a test is broken because of a bug it is appropriate to skip the test until
+bug has been fixed. However, the skip message should be formatted so that
+Tempest's skip tracking tool can watch the bug status. The skip message should
+contain the string 'Bug' immediately followed by a space. Then the bug number
+should be included in the message '#' in front of the number.
+
+Example::
+
+  @testtools.skip("Skipped until the Bug #980688 is resolved")
+
+
 openstack-common
 ----------------
 
diff --git a/cli/__init__.py b/cli/__init__.py
index 6ffe229..5d986c0 100644
--- a/cli/__init__.py
+++ b/cli/__init__.py
@@ -60,10 +60,11 @@
         return self.cmd_with_auth(
             'nova', action, flags, params, admin, fail_ok)
 
-    def nova_manage(self, action, flags='', params='', fail_ok=False):
+    def nova_manage(self, action, flags='', params='', fail_ok=False,
+                    merge_stderr=False):
         """Executes nova-manage command for the given action."""
         return self.cmd(
-            'nova-manage', action, flags, params, fail_ok)
+            'nova-manage', action, flags, params, fail_ok, merge_stderr)
 
     def keystone(self, action, flags='', params='', admin=True, fail_ok=False):
         """Executes keystone command for the given action."""
@@ -81,14 +82,19 @@
         flags = creds + ' ' + flags
         return self.cmd(cmd, action, flags, params, fail_ok)
 
-    def cmd(self, cmd, action, flags='', params='', fail_ok=False):
+    def cmd(self, cmd, action, flags='', params='', fail_ok=False,
+            merge_stderr=False):
         """Executes specified command for the given action."""
         cmd = ' '.join([CONF.cli.cli_dir + cmd,
                         flags, action, params])
         LOG.info("running: '%s'" % cmd)
         cmd = shlex.split(cmd)
         try:
-            result = subprocess.check_output(cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+            if merge_stderr:
+                result = subprocess.check_output(cmd, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+            else:
+                devnull = open('/dev/null', 'w')
+                result = subprocess.check_output(cmd, stderr=devnull)
         except subprocess.CalledProcessError, e:
             LOG.error("command output:\n%s" % e.output)
             raise
diff --git a/cli/simple_read_only/test_compute_manage.py b/cli/simple_read_only/test_compute_manage.py
index 5768c74..650ef10 100644
--- a/cli/simple_read_only/test_compute_manage.py
+++ b/cli/simple_read_only/test_compute_manage.py
@@ -50,9 +50,11 @@
         self.nova_manage('', '-h')
 
     def test_version_flag(self):
-        self.assertNotEqual("", self.nova_manage('', '--version'))
+        # Bug 1159957: nova-manage --version writes to stderr
+        self.assertNotEqual("", self.nova_manage('', '--version',
+                                                 merge_stderr=True))
         self.assertEqual(self.nova_manage('version'),
-                         self.nova_manage('', '--version'))
+                         self.nova_manage('', '--version', merge_stderr=True))
 
     def test_debug_flag(self):
         self.assertNotEqual("", self.nova_manage('instance_type list',
@@ -68,8 +70,8 @@
 
     def test_flavor_list(self):
         self.assertNotEqual("", self.nova_manage('flavor list'))
-        self.assertNotEqual(self.nova_manage('instance_type list'),
-                            self.nova_manage('flavor list'))
+        self.assertEqual(self.nova_manage('instance_type list'),
+                         self.nova_manage('flavor list'))
 
     def test_db_archive_deleted_rows(self):
         # make sure command doesn't error out
diff --git a/tools/hacking.py b/tools/hacking.py
index 617682d..528424a 100755
--- a/tools/hacking.py
+++ b/tools/hacking.py
@@ -323,6 +323,30 @@
                 return (pos, "T404: test functions must "
                         "not have doc strings")
 
+SKIP_DECORATOR = '@testtools.skip('
+
+
+def tempest_skip_bugs(physical_line):
+    """Check skip lines for proper bug entries
+
+    T601: Bug not in skip line
+    T602: Bug in message formatted incorrectly
+    """
+
+    pos = physical_line.find(SKIP_DECORATOR)
+
+    skip_re = re.compile(r'^\s*@testtools.skip.*')
+
+    if pos != -1 and skip_re.match(physical_line):
+        bug = re.compile(r'^.*\bbug\b.*', re.IGNORECASE)
+        if bug.match(physical_line) is None:
+            return (pos, 'T601: skips must have an associated bug')
+
+        bug_re = re.compile(r'.*skip\(.*Bug\s\#\d+', re.IGNORECASE)
+
+        if bug_re.match(physical_line) is None:
+            return (pos, 'T602: Bug number formatted incorrectly')
+
 
 FORMAT_RE = re.compile("%(?:"
                        "%|"           # Ignore plain percents