diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e8d8444..ce47bf4 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -13,3 +13,4 @@ test/test2.txt
 test/scripts/hello.bin
 test/scripts/hello2.bin
 test/scripts/testlog.txt
+test/scripts/generate_file
diff --git a/test/scripts/Makefile b/test/scripts/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..13d0606
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/scripts/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+CC = gcc
+
+%.o: %.c
+	$(CC) -c -o $@ $<
+
+generate_file: generate_file.o
+	$(CC) -o $@ $^ 
+
+all: generate_file
+
+clean:
+	rm -f *.o
+	rm -f generate_file
diff --git a/test/scripts/generate_file.c b/test/scripts/generate_file.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb1bc5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/scripts/generate_file.c
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+
+int main(int argc, char** argv) {
+	if (argc != 3) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "Syntax: %s <filename> <size>\n", argv[0]);
+		exit(1);
+	}
+
+	char* filename = argv[1];
+	long file_size = atoi(argv[2]);
+
+	FILE* fd = fopen(filename, "w");
+	if (!fd) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "Unable to open the file %s for writing.\n", filename);
+		exit(1);
+	}
+
+	for(size_t i = 0; i < file_size; i++) {
+		char byte = i % 255;
+		fwrite(&byte, 1, 1, fd);
+	}
+
+	fclose(fd);
+	return 0;
+}
diff --git a/test/scripts/test_5.sh b/test/scripts/test_5.sh
index 09373f3..7a27d46 100755
--- a/test/scripts/test_5.sh
+++ b/test/scripts/test_5.sh
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ function body {
 	
 	#A client of server 2 wants the file at server 1
 	eval "$IPFS2" cat QmYAXgX8ARiriupMQsbGXtKdDyGzWry1YV3sycKw1qqmgH
-	check_failure_with_exit "cat" $?
+	check_failure "cat" $?
 	
 	kill -9 $daemon_id_1
 	kill -9 $daemon_id_2
diff --git a/test/scripts/test_helpers.sh b/test/scripts/test_helpers.sh
index 225c32e..e1d10fd 100755
--- a/test/scripts/test_helpers.sh
+++ b/test/scripts/test_helpers.sh
@@ -25,12 +25,7 @@ function create_binary_file {
 	if [ $num_bytes -eq 0 ]; then
 		num_bytes=255;
 	fi
-	let num_bytes--
-	for ((byte=0;byte<=$num_bytes;byte++));
-	do
-		let remainder=($byte % 255)
-		printf "\\$(printf "%o" $remainder)" >> hello.bin
-	done
+	exec ./generate_file hello.bin $num_bytes
 }
 
 ####