diff --git a/testsuite/fleettest.py b/testsuite/fleettest.py
index e2deef36..95757a39 100755
--- a/testsuite/fleettest.py
+++ b/testsuite/fleettest.py
@@ -1170,6 +1170,23 @@ def main() -> int:
     # The expected-skip lists travel with the suite, so read workflows from the
     # tree that provides the tests.
     WORKFLOWS = TESTSUITE_REPO / ".github" / "workflows"
+
+    # A tree that is OLDER than the suite being run against it -- a backport
+    # branch under --testsuite-repo -- cannot pass tests for fixes and features
+    # it does not carry, and cannot build the suite's newer unit-test helpers.
+    # It declares those in its own testsuite/skiplist/backport.txt, which is
+    # read from the BUILT tree, not the suite tree, because only the built tree
+    # knows what it lacks.  The names are excluded outright (RSYNC_EXCLUDE)
+    # rather than declared as expected skips: some of them fail rather than
+    # skip, and an expected-skip list cannot describe a failure.
+    bp = REPO / "testsuite" / "skiplist" / "backport.txt"
+    if bp.is_file():
+        names = [ln.split("#", 1)[0].strip() for ln in bp.read_text().splitlines()]
+        names = [x for x in names if x]
+        if names:
+            SKIP_CSV = ",".join(x for x in ([SKIP_CSV] + names) if x)
+            print(f"[backport] excluding {len(names)} test(s) declared in "
+                  f"{bp.relative_to(REPO)}")
     if not args.cleanup:
         # The Python test suite (runtests.py + testsuite/) comes from
         # TESTSUITE_REPO, so that is where runtests.py must live.  The build tree
diff --git a/testsuite/skiplist-spec_test.py b/testsuite/skiplist-spec_test.py
index d90d7d92..2fe0dde2 100644
--- a/testsuite/skiplist-spec_test.py
+++ b/testsuite/skiplist-spec_test.py
@@ -110,7 +110,15 @@ if got.startswith('exit:') or not got:
 
 # --- the committed lists ---------------------------------------------------
 
-lists = sorted((SRC / 'testsuite' / 'skiplist').glob('*.txt'))
+# backport.txt is not an expected-skip list: it is an EXCLUDE list that a
+# backport branch ships to say which of this suite's tests it cannot run, and
+# fleettest reads it from the BUILT tree rather than from any workflow.  It only
+# appears here when a backport tree has been overlaid with this suite, so it is
+# exempt from the checks below that assume a workflow points at the file.
+BACKPORT_LIST = 'backport.txt'
+
+lists = sorted(p for p in (SRC / 'testsuite' / 'skiplist').glob('*.txt')
+               if p.name != BACKPORT_LIST)
 if len(lists) < 5:
     test_fail(f'expected the per-platform skip lists, found {lists}')
 for path in lists:
diff --git a/testsuite/skiplist/README.md b/testsuite/skiplist/README.md
index 59c175ad..954dee71 100644
--- a/testsuite/skiplist/README.md
+++ b/testsuite/skiplist/README.md
@@ -67,3 +67,29 @@ target with `"protocols": [29]` is only pinned if its workflow actually has a
 `make check29` step composing `proto29.txt`. Today only the Ubuntu workflows
 do; a macOS or Cygwin target set to run protocol 29 gets no expected-skip
 oracle for that pass rather than a wrong one.
+
+## `backport.txt` — a different thing in the same directory
+
+A backport branch (`v3.4.1-sec-patches3`, `v3.2.7-sec-patches3`) is tested with
+a NEWER suite than it shipped with, via
+`fleettest.py --repo <backport> --testsuite-repo <3.5.0>`. Such a tree cannot
+pass tests for fixes it does not carry, and cannot build unit-test helpers its
+Makefile has never heard of.
+
+Those branches each carry their own `testsuite/skiplist/backport.txt`. It is
+**not** an expected-skip list:
+
+* the other files here are `RSYNC_EXPECT_SKIPPED` oracles — "these should skip,
+  tell me if that changes";
+* `backport.txt` is an `RSYNC_EXCLUDE` list — "do not run these at all".
+
+It has to be an exclusion because some of the tests *fail* rather than skip on
+an older tree, and an expected-skip list cannot describe a failure.
+
+`fleettest.py` reads it from the tree being BUILT (`--repo`), not from the tree
+providing the suite, because only the built tree knows what it lacks. The
+overlay that puts a newer `testsuite/` onto an older tree is a merge with no
+delete, so a file that exists only on the backport survives it.
+
+`skiplist-spec` exempts this name from the rule that every committed list must
+be referenced by a workflow: nothing references it, by design.