The ```-j``` option must be new - it doesn't exist on my work desktop - SLED11 SP2 (release Feb 2012, with Perl 5.10).  The test battery is not aimed at general users, and I can update Perl myself, so that's fine ... but given that some recent distros are evidently not going to support the option, perhaps you could test for it and fall back to ```prove -r -s``` if necessary?