diff --git a/tests/data/.gitattributes b/tests/data/.gitattributes
deleted file mode 100644
index bb1b928306..0000000000
--- a/tests/data/.gitattributes
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-# Copyright (C) Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
-#
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: curl
-
-test* -crlf
diff --git a/tests/devtest.pl b/tests/devtest.pl
index 0bfc71b07a..30124a9f91 100755
--- a/tests/devtest.pl
+++ b/tests/devtest.pl
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ while(@ARGV) {
     }
     elsif($ARGV[0] eq "preprocess") {
         shift @ARGV;
-        loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${ARGV[0]}");
+        loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${ARGV[0]}", 1);
         readtestkeywords();
         singletest_preprocess($ARGV[0]);
     }
diff --git a/tests/getpart.pm b/tests/getpart.pm
index b555038cf7..2b6d2a63c4 100644
--- a/tests/getpart.pm
+++ b/tests/getpart.pm
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ sub partexists {
 # memoize('partexists', NORMALIZER => 'normalize_part');  # cache each result
 
 sub loadtest {
-    my ($file)=@_;
+    my ($file, $original)=@_;
 
     if(defined $xmlfile && $file eq $xmlfile) {
         # This test is already loaded
@@ -228,7 +228,12 @@ sub loadtest {
     $xmlfile = "";
 
     if(open(my $xmlh, "<", "$file")) {
-        binmode $xmlh; # for crapage systems, use binary
+        if($original) {
+            binmode $xmlh, ':crlf'
+        }
+        else {
+            binmode $xmlh; # for crapage systems, use binary
+        }
         while(<$xmlh>) {
             push @xml, $_;
         }
@@ -251,16 +256,44 @@ sub fulltest {
     return @xml;
 }
 
-sub checktest {
-    my $anyerr = 0;
+sub eol_detect {
+    my ($content) = @_;
 
-    for my $i (0 .. $#xml) {
-        if(index($xml[$i], "\r") >= 0) {
-            print STDERR "*** getpart.pm: $xmlfile:$i: 0x0d carriage return found. Use %CR macro instead.\n";
-            $anyerr = 1;
+    my $cr = () = $content =~ /\r/g;
+    my $lf = () = $content =~ /\n/g;
+
+    if($cr > 0 && $lf == 0) {
+        return "cr";
+    }
+    elsif($cr == 0 && $lf > 0) {
+        return "lf";
+    }
+    elsif($cr == 0 && $lf == 0) {
+        return "bin";
+    }
+    elsif($cr == $lf) {
+        return "crlf";
+    }
+
+    return "";
+}
+
+sub checktest {
+    my ($file) = @_;
+
+    if(open(my $xmlh, '<', $file)) {
+        binmode $xmlh; # we want the raw data to check original newlines
+        my $content = do { local $/; <$xmlh> };
+        close($xmlh);
+
+        my $eol = eol_detect($content);
+        if($eol eq '') {
+            print STDERR "*** getpart.pm: $xmlfile has mixed newlines. Replace significant carriage return with %CR macro, or convert to consistent newlines.\n";
+            return 1;
         }
     }
-    return $anyerr;
+
+    return 0;
 }
 
 # write the test to the given file
diff --git a/tests/runner.pm b/tests/runner.pm
index 8b9c0c3f2e..c711834e01 100644
--- a/tests/runner.pm
+++ b/tests/runner.pm
@@ -1149,12 +1149,9 @@ sub singletest_postcheck {
         }
     }
 
-    if($checktests) {
-        loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}");  # load the raw original data
-        if(checktest()) {
-            logmsg " $testnum: postcheck FAILED: issue(s) found in test data\n";
-            return -1;
-        }
+    if($checktests && checktest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}")) {
+        logmsg " $testnum: postcheck FAILED: issue(s) found in test data\n";
+        return -1;
     }
 
     return 0;
@@ -1181,7 +1178,7 @@ sub runner_test_preprocess {
     # ignore any error here--if there were one, it would have been
     # caught during the selection phase and this test would not be
     # running now
-    loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}");
+    loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}", 1);
     readtestkeywords();
 
     ###################################################################
diff --git a/tests/runtests.pl b/tests/runtests.pl
index 761056a8ed..226573941d 100755
--- a/tests/runtests.pl
+++ b/tests/runtests.pl
@@ -1078,7 +1078,7 @@ sub singletest_shouldrun {
         $errorreturncode = 2;
     }
 
-    if(loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}")) {
+    if(loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}", 1)) {
         if($verbose) {
             # this is not a test
             logmsg "RUN: $testnum doesn't look like a test case\n";
@@ -1191,7 +1191,7 @@ sub singletest_shouldrun {
         }
     }
 
-    if($why && $checktests && checktest()) {
+    if($why && $checktests && checktest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}")) {
         logmsg "Warning: issue(s) found in test data: ${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}\n";
     }
 
@@ -1980,7 +1980,7 @@ sub singletest {
         ###################################################################
         # Load test file so CI registration can get the right data before the
         # runner is called
-        loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}");
+        loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}", 1);
 
         ###################################################################
         # Register the test case with the CI environment
@@ -3281,7 +3281,7 @@ if(%skipped && !$short) {
 sub testnumdetails {
     my ($desc, $numlist) = @_;
     foreach my $testnum (split(' ', $numlist)) {
-        if(!loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}")) {
+        if(!loadtest("${TESTDIR}/test${testnum}", 1)) {
             my @info_keywords = getpart("info", "keywords");
             my $testname = (getpart("client", "name"))[0];
             chomp $testname;
diff --git a/tests/util.py b/tests/util.py
index fa4ca82723..8ed8c89267 100755
--- a/tests/util.py
+++ b/tests/util.py
@@ -75,8 +75,8 @@ class TestData(object):
 
         log.debug("Parsing file %s", filename)
 
-        with open(filename, "rb") as f:
-            contents = f.read().decode("utf-8")
+        with open(filename, "r", encoding='us-ascii') as f:
+            contents = f.read()
 
         m = REPLY_DATA.search(contents)
         if not m:
@@ -88,5 +88,5 @@ class TestData(object):
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     td = TestData("./data")
-    data = td.get_test_data(1)
+    data = td.get_test_data(1451)
     print(data)