diff --git a/src/libpriv/rpmostree-core.c b/src/libpriv/rpmostree-core.c
index 6ba769fc..28f7c40d 100644
--- a/src/libpriv/rpmostree-core.c
+++ b/src/libpriv/rpmostree-core.c
@@ -354,8 +354,10 @@ rpmostree_context_new_system (GCancellable *cancellable,
   dnf_context_set_http_proxy (self->hifctx, g_getenv ("http_proxy"));
 
   dnf_context_set_repo_dir (self->hifctx, "/etc/yum.repos.d");
-  /* Operating on stale metadata is too annoying */
-  dnf_context_set_cache_age (self->hifctx, 0);
+  /* Operating on stale metadata is too annoying -- but provide a way to
+   * override this for testing. */
+  if (g_getenv("RPMOSTREE_USE_CACHED_METADATA") == NULL)
+      dnf_context_set_cache_age (self->hifctx, 0);
   dnf_context_set_cache_dir (self->hifctx, "/var/cache/rpm-ostree/" RPMOSTREE_DIR_CACHE_REPOMD);
   dnf_context_set_solv_dir (self->hifctx, "/var/cache/rpm-ostree/" RPMOSTREE_DIR_CACHE_SOLV);
   dnf_context_set_lock_dir (self->hifctx, "/run/rpm-ostree/" RPMOSTREE_DIR_LOCK);
diff --git a/src/libpriv/rpmostree-postprocess.c b/src/libpriv/rpmostree-postprocess.c
index fe8e63c9..37195e02 100644
--- a/src/libpriv/rpmostree-postprocess.c
+++ b/src/libpriv/rpmostree-postprocess.c
@@ -1542,7 +1542,7 @@ mutate_os_release (const char    *contents,
         continue;
 
       /* NB: we don't mutate VERSION_ID because some libraries expect well-known
-       * values there*/
+       * values there */
       if (g_str_has_prefix (line, "VERSION=") || \
           g_str_has_prefix (line, "PRETTY_NAME="))
         {
diff --git a/tests/compose b/tests/compose
index a81b25ac..39786099 100755
--- a/tests/compose
+++ b/tests/compose
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ dn=$(cd $(dirname $0) && pwd)
 
 export topsrcdir=$(cd $dn/.. && pwd)
 
+# avoid refetching yum metadata everytime
+export RPMOSTREE_USE_CACHED_METADATA=1
+
 LOG=${LOG:-compose.log}
 date > ${LOG}