diff --git a/tools/rosunit/src/rosunit/baretest.py b/tools/rosunit/src/rosunit/baretest.py
index e9ec1789..d6daf351 100644
--- a/tools/rosunit/src/rosunit/baretest.py
+++ b/tools/rosunit/src/rosunit/baretest.py
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ class TestTimeoutException(Exception): pass
 
 class BareTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
-    def __init__(self, exe, args, retry=0, time_limit=None, test_name=None, text_mode=False):
+    def __init__(self, exe, args, retry=0, time_limit=None, test_name=None, text_mode=False, package_name=None):
         """
         @param exe: path to executable to run
         @type  exe: str
@@ -73,10 +73,15 @@ class BareTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         @type  time_limit: float
         @param test_name: (optional) override automatically generated test name
         @type  test_name: str
+        @param package_name: (optional) override automatically inferred package name
+        @type  package_name: str
         """
         super(BareTestCase, self).__init__()
         self.text_mode = text_mode
-        self.package = rospkg.get_package_name(exe)
+        if package_name:
+            self.package = package_name
+        else:
+            self.package = rospkg.get_package_name(exe)
         self.exe = os.path.abspath(exe)
         if test_name is None:
             self.test_name = os.path.basename(exe)
diff --git a/tools/rosunit/src/rosunit/rosunit_main.py b/tools/rosunit/src/rosunit/rosunit_main.py
index 871c29b6..7dc525b8 100644
--- a/tools/rosunit/src/rosunit/rosunit_main.py
+++ b/tools/rosunit/src/rosunit/rosunit_main.py
@@ -63,6 +63,9 @@ def rosunitmain():
     parser.add_option("--name", metavar="TEST_NAME",
                       dest="test_name", default=None,
                       help="Test name")
+    parser.add_option("--package", metavar="PACKAGE_NAME",
+                      dest="pkg", default=None,
+                      help="Package name (optional)")
     (options, args) = parser.parse_args()
 
     if len(args) < 1:
@@ -78,8 +81,14 @@ def rosunitmain():
             test_name = test_name[:test_name.rfind('.')]
     time_limit = float(options.time_limit) if options.time_limit else None
 
+    # If the caller didn't tell us the package name, we'll try to infer it.
     # compute some common names we'll be using to generate test names and files
-    pkg = rospkg.get_package_name(test_file)
+    pkg = options.pkg
+    if not pkg:
+        pkg = rospkg.get_package_name(test_file)
+    if not pkg:
+        print "Error: failed to determine package name for file '%s'; maybe you should supply the --package argument to rosunit?"%(test_file)
+        sys.exit(1)
 
     try:
         runner_result = None
@@ -87,7 +96,7 @@ def rosunitmain():
 
         test_case = BareTestCase(test_file, args[1:], \
                                  retry=0, time_limit=time_limit, \
-                                 test_name=test_name, text_mode=options.text_mode)
+                                 test_name=test_name, text_mode=options.text_mode, package_name=pkg)
         suite = unittest.TestSuite()
         suite.addTest(test_case)