diff --git a/tests/support/server.tcl b/tests/support/server.tcl
index 4c1bc37c8..e8fa3e6f2 100644
--- a/tests/support/server.tcl
+++ b/tests/support/server.tcl
@@ -508,6 +508,7 @@ proc start_server {options {code undefined}} {
         set num_tests $::num_tests
         if {[catch { uplevel 1 $code } error]} {
             set backtrace $::errorInfo
+            set assertion [string match "assertion:*" $error]
 
             # fetch srv back from the server list, in case it was restarted by restart_server (new PID)
             set srv [lindex $::servers end]
@@ -519,17 +520,23 @@ proc start_server {options {code undefined}} {
             dict set srv "skipleaks" 1
             kill_server $srv
 
-            # Print warnings from log
-            puts [format "\nLogged warnings (pid %d):" [dict get $srv "pid"]]
-            set warnings [warnings_from_file [dict get $srv "stdout"]]
-            if {[string length $warnings] > 0} {
-                puts "$warnings"
+            if {$::dump_logs && $assertion} {
+                # if we caught an assertion ($::num_failed isn't incremented yet)
+                # this happens when the test spawns a server and not the other way around
+                dump_server_log $srv
             } else {
-                puts "(none)"
+                # Print crash report from log
+                set crashlog [crashlog_from_file [dict get $srv "stdout"]]
+                if {[string length $crashlog] > 0} {
+                    puts [format "\nLogged crash report (pid %d):" [dict get $srv "pid"]]
+                    puts "$crashlog"
+                    puts ""
+                }
             }
-            puts ""
 
-            if {$::durable} {
+            if {!$assertion && $::durable} {
+                # durable is meant to prevent the whole tcl test from exiting on
+                # an exception. an assertion will be caught by the test proc.
                 set msg [string range $error 10 end]
                 lappend details $msg
                 lappend details $backtrace
diff --git a/tests/support/test.tcl b/tests/support/test.tcl
index 39aebe156..29d0cbf41 100644
--- a/tests/support/test.tcl
+++ b/tests/support/test.tcl
@@ -165,6 +165,8 @@ proc test {name code {okpattern undefined} {options undefined}} {
     if {[catch {set retval [uplevel 1 $code]} error]} {
         set assertion [string match "assertion:*" $error]
         if {$assertion || $::durable} {
+            # durable prevents the whole tcl test from exiting on an exception.
+            # an assertion is handled gracefully anyway.
             set msg [string range $error 10 end]
             lappend details $msg
             if {!$assertion} {
diff --git a/tests/support/util.tcl b/tests/support/util.tcl
index 5ea85c9e5..318cdf871 100644
--- a/tests/support/util.tcl
+++ b/tests/support/util.tcl
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ proc zlistAlikeSort {a b} {
 
 # Return all log lines starting with the first line that contains a warning.
 # Generally, this will be an assertion error with a stack trace.
-proc warnings_from_file {filename} {
+proc crashlog_from_file {filename} {
     set lines [split [exec cat $filename] "\n"]
     set matched 0
     set logall 0