diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 7d59becae..34dc8c4a3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,7 +1,14 @@
 Changes between 1.3.0 and 1.3.1
 ==================================================
 
-- improve tracebacks showing:
+- make py.test.cmdline.main() return the exitstatus 
+  instead of raising (which is still done by py.cmdline.pytest())
+  and make it so that py.test.cmdline.main() can be called
+  multiple times, at least as far as py.test's internal 
+  state is concerned - previously it would raise an exception
+  on the second time. 
+
+- improve tracebacks presentation: 
   - raises shows shorter more relevant tracebacks
 
 Changes between 1.2.1 and 1.3.0
diff --git a/contrib/runtesthelper.py b/contrib/runtesthelper.py
index 96c90eb8d..e1c769e0c 100644
--- a/contrib/runtesthelper.py
+++ b/contrib/runtesthelper.py
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 """
 this little helper allows to run tests multiple times
 in the same process.  useful for running tests from 
-a console.
+a console.  
+
+NOTE: since 1.3.1 you can just call py.test.cmdline.main() 
+multiple times - no special logic needed. 
 """
 import py, sys
 
diff --git a/py/__init__.py b/py/__init__.py
index 36cc5b00d..360bbea27 100644
--- a/py/__init__.py
+++ b/py/__init__.py
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@ py.apipkg.initpkg(__name__, dict(
         'pytest':     '._cmdline.pytest:main',
         'pylookup':   '._cmdline.pylookup:main',
         'pycountloc': '._cmdline.pycountlog:main',
-        'pytest':     '._test.cmdline:main',
         'pylookup':   '._cmdline.pylookup:main',
         'pycountloc': '._cmdline.pycountloc:main',
         'pycleanup':  '._cmdline.pycleanup:main',
diff --git a/py/_cmdline/pytest.py b/py/_cmdline/pytest.py
index fc460593c..14e2bc81c 100755
--- a/py/_cmdline/pytest.py
+++ b/py/_cmdline/pytest.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python 
 import py
 
-def main(args):
-    py.test.cmdline.main(args) 
+def main(args=None):
+    raise SystemExit(py.test.cmdline.main(args))
diff --git a/py/_test/cmdline.py b/py/_test/cmdline.py
index 804c42fc1..80ca99d4f 100644
--- a/py/_test/cmdline.py
+++ b/py/_test/cmdline.py
@@ -16,8 +16,9 @@ def main(args=None):
         colitems = config.getinitialnodes()
         exitstatus = session.main(colitems)
         config.pluginmanager.do_unconfigure(config)
-        raise SystemExit(exitstatus)
     except config.Error:
         e = sys.exc_info()[1]
         sys.stderr.write("ERROR: %s\n" %(e.args[0],))
-        raise SystemExit(3)
+        exitstatus = 3
+    py.test.config = py.test.config.__class__()
+    return exitstatus
diff --git a/testing/acceptance_test.py b/testing/acceptance_test.py
index 78f2ddc65..f3222aa4f 100644
--- a/testing/acceptance_test.py
+++ b/testing/acceptance_test.py
@@ -89,3 +89,19 @@ class TestGeneralUsage:
         assert result.ret == 0
         s = result.stdout.str()
         assert 'MarkGenerator' in s
+
+    def test_double_pytestcmdline(self, testdir):
+        p = testdir.makepyfile(run="""
+            import py
+            py.test.cmdline.main()
+            py.test.cmdline.main()
+        """)
+        testdir.makepyfile("""
+            def test_hello():
+                pass
+        """)
+        result = testdir.runpython(p)
+        result.stdout.fnmatch_lines([
+            "*1 passed*",
+            "*1 passed*",
+        ])