diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index bfbf6f2c4b..331195fc04 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -18,11 +18,6 @@ matrix:
             - SWBASE=/Users/kovid SW=$SWBASE/sw PATH=$SW/bin:$SW/qt/bin:$SW/python/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:$PWD/node_modules/.bin:$PATH CFLAGS=-I$SW/include LDFLAGS=-L$SW/lib QMAKE=$SW/qt/bin/qmake QT_PLUGIN_PATH=$SW/qt/plugins
 
 before_install:
-    - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "linux" ]]; then python setup/ci-download.py https://download.calibre-ebook.com/travis/sw-linux.tar.xz J $HOME; fi
-    - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "osx" ]]; then sudo mkdir -p $SWBASE && sudo chown $USER $SWBASE; fi
-    - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "osx" ]]; then python setup/ci-download.py https://download.calibre-ebook.com/travis/sw-osx.tar.bz2 j $SWBASE; fi
-    - npm install --no-optional rapydscript-ng && echo $PATH && which rapydscript && rapydscript --version
-    - python setup.py bootstrap --ephemeral
-    - if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == "osx" ]]; then export SSL_CERT_FILE=$PWD/resources/mozilla-ca-certs.pem; fi
+    - python setup/unix-ci.py install
 
-script: python setup.py test
+script: python setup/unix-ci.py test
diff --git a/setup/ci-download.py b/setup/ci-download.py
deleted file mode 100644
index d89a5069e2..0000000000
--- a/setup/ci-download.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,29 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
-# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
-# License: GPLv3 Copyright: 2017, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
-
-from __future__ import absolute_import, division, print_function, unicode_literals
-
-import sys, subprocess
-from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
-
-url, compression, dest = sys.argv[-3:]
-
-
-def decompress(path):
-    raise SystemExit(
-        subprocess.Popen(['tar', 'x' + compression + 'f', path, '-C', dest]).wait()
-    )
-
-
-if __name__ == '__main__':
-    for i in range(5):
-        if i:
-            print('Failed to download', url, 'retrying...'.format(url))
-        else:
-            print('Downloading', url, '...')
-        with NamedTemporaryFile() as f:
-            ret = subprocess.Popen(['curl', url], stdout=f).wait()
-            if ret == 0:
-                decompress(f.name)
-                break
diff --git a/setup/unix-ci.py b/setup/unix-ci.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f544312f8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup/unix-ci.py
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
+# License: GPLv3 Copyright: 2017, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
+
+from __future__ import absolute_import, division, print_function, unicode_literals
+
+import os
+import shlex
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import time
+from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
+
+_plat = sys.platform.lower()
+isosx = 'darwin' in _plat
+
+
+def run(*args):
+    if len(args) == 1:
+        args = shlex.split(args[0])
+    print(' '.join(args))
+    ret = subprocess.Popen(args).wait()
+    if ret != 0:
+        raise SystemExit(ret)
+
+
+def decompress(path, dest, compression):
+    run('tar', 'x' + compression + 'f', path, '-C', dest)
+
+
+def download_and_decompress(url, dest, compression=None):
+    if compression is None:
+        compression = 'j' if url.endswith('.bz2') else 'J'
+    for i in range(5):
+        print('Downloading', url, '...')
+        with NamedTemporaryFile() as f:
+            ret = subprocess.Popen(['curl', '-fSsL', url], stdout=f).wait()
+            if ret == 0:
+                decompress(f.name, dest, compression)
+                return
+            time.sleep(1)
+    raise SystemExit('Failed to download ' + url)
+
+
+def main():
+    action = sys.argv[1]
+    if action == 'install':
+        if isosx:
+            os.makedirs(os.environ['SWBASE'])
+            run('sudo', 'chown', os.environ['USER'], os.environ['SWBASE'])
+            download_and_decompress('https://download.calibre-ebook.com/travis/sw-osx.tar.bz2', os.environ['SWBASE'])
+        else:
+            download_and_decompress('https://download.calibre-ebook.com/travis/sw-linux.tar.xz', os.path.expanduser('~'))
+
+        run('npm install --no-optional rapydscript-ng')
+        print(os.environ['PATH'])
+        run('which rapydscript')
+        run('rapydscript --version')
+
+        run(sys.executable, 'setup.py', 'bootstrap', '--ephemeral')
+    elif action == 'test':
+        if isosx:
+            os.environ['SSL_CERT_FILE'] = os.path.abspath('resources/mozilla-ca-certs.pem')
+        run(sys.executable, 'setup.py', 'test')
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()