Index: launch.scm
==================================================================
--- launch.scm
+++ launch.scm
@@ -103,11 +103,15 @@
 	    ;; (setup-env-defaults (conc *toppath* "/runconfigs.config") run-id (make-hash-table) keyvals target)
 	    ;; (set-run-config-vars run-id keyvals target) ;; (db:get-target db run-id))
 	    ;; Now have runconfigs data loaded, set environment vars
 	    (for-each (lambda (section)
 			(for-each (lambda (varval)
-				    (setenv (car varval)(cadr varval)))
+				    (let ((var (car varval))
+					  (val (cadr varval)))
+				      (if (and (string? var)(string? val))
+					  (setenv var val)
+					  (debug:print 0 "ERROR: bad variable spec, " var "=" val))))
 				  (configf:get-section rconfig section)))
 		      (list "default" target)))
 	  (change-directory work-area) 
 	  ;; Setup the *runremote* global var
 	  (if *runremote* (debug:print 2 "ERROR: I'm not expecting *runremote* to be set at this time"))
@@ -692,11 +696,12 @@
     ;; set the megatest to be called on the remote host
     (if (not remote-megatest)(set! remote-megatest local-megatest)) ;; "megatest"))
     (set! mt-bindir-path (pathname-directory remote-megatest))
     (if launcher (set! launcher (string-split launcher)))
     ;; set up the run work area for this test
-    (if (args:get-arg "-preclean") ;; user has requested to preclean for this run
+    (if (and (args:get-arg "-preclean") ;; user has requested to preclean for this run
+	     (not (equal? (db:test-get-rundir testinfo) "n/a"))) ;; n/a is a placeholder and thus not a read dir
 	(begin 
 	  (debug:print-info 0 "attempting to preclean directory " (db:test-get-rundir testinfo) " for test " test-name "/" item-path)
 	  (runs:remove-test-directory #f testinfo #t))) ;; remove data only, do not perturb the record
     (set! diskpath (get-best-disk *configdat*))
     (if diskpath