diff --git a/admin/tool/phpunit/settings.php b/admin/tool/phpunit/settings.php
index efefd32dfab..e42049bbbb0 100644
--- a/admin/tool/phpunit/settings.php
+++ b/admin/tool/phpunit/settings.php
@@ -27,6 +27,4 @@ defined('MOODLE_INTERNAL') || die;
 
 if ($hassiteconfig) {
     $ADMIN->add('development', new admin_externalpage('toolphpunit', get_string('pluginname', 'tool_phpunit'), "$CFG->wwwroot/$CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/index.php"));
-    $ADMIN->add('development', new admin_externalpage('toolphpunitwebrunner', get_string('pluginname', 'tool_phpunit'), "$CFG->wwwroot/$CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/webrunner.php",
-        'moodle/site:config', true));
 }
diff --git a/admin/tool/phpunit/upgrade.txt b/admin/tool/phpunit/upgrade.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4580c988f50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/admin/tool/phpunit/upgrade.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+This files describes API changes in the tool_phpunit code.
+
+=== 3.9 ===
+* webrunner was removed
diff --git a/admin/tool/phpunit/webrunner.php b/admin/tool/phpunit/webrunner.php
deleted file mode 100644
index 47a2b42ecb6..00000000000
--- a/admin/tool/phpunit/webrunner.php
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,192 +0,0 @@
-<?php
-// This file is part of Moodle - http://moodle.org/
-//
-// Moodle is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
-// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
-// (at your option) any later version.
-//
-// Moodle is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-// GNU General Public License for more details.
-//
-// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-// along with Moodle.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-
-/**
- * PHPUnit shell execution wrapper
- *
- * @package    tool_phpunit
- * @copyright  2012 Petr Skoda {@link http://skodak.org}
- * @license    http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU GPL v3 or later
- */
-
-define('NO_OUTPUT_BUFFERING', true);
-
-require(__DIR__ . '/../../../config.php');
-require_once($CFG->libdir.'/adminlib.php');
-
-$testpath  = optional_param('testpath', '', PARAM_PATH);
-$testclass = optional_param('testclass', '', PARAM_ALPHANUMEXT);
-$execute   = optional_param('execute', 0, PARAM_BOOL);
-
-navigation_node::override_active_url(new moodle_url('/admin/tool/phpunit/index.php'));
-admin_externalpage_setup('toolphpunitwebrunner');
-
-if (!$CFG->debugdeveloper) {
-    print_error('notlocalisederrormessage', 'error', '', null, 'Not available on production sites, sorry.');
-}
-
-core_php_time_limit::raise(60*30);
-
-$oldcwd = getcwd();
-$code = 0;
-
-if (!isset($CFG->phpunit_dataroot) or !isset($CFG->phpunit_prefix)) {
-    tool_phpunit_problem('Missing $CFG->phpunit_dataroot or $CFG->phpunit_prefix, can not execute tests.');
-}
-if (!file_exists($CFG->phpunit_dataroot)) {
-    mkdir($CFG->phpunit_dataroot, 02777, true);
-}
-if (!is_writable($CFG->phpunit_dataroot)) {
-    tool_phpunit_problem('$CFG->phpunit_dataroot in not writable, can not execute tests.');
-}
-$output = null;
-exec('php --version', $output, $code);
-if ($code != 0) {
-    tool_phpunit_problem('Can not execute \'php\' binary.');
-}
-
-if ($execute) {
-    require_sesskey();
-
-    chdir($CFG->dirroot);
-    $output = null;
-    exec("php $CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --diag", $output, $code);
-    if ($code == 0) {
-        // everything is ready
-
-    } else if ($code == PHPUNIT_EXITCODE_INSTALL) {
-        tool_phpunit_header();
-        echo $OUTPUT->box_start('generalbox');
-        echo '<pre>';
-        echo "Initialising test database:\n\n";
-        chdir($CFG->dirroot);
-        ignore_user_abort(true);
-        passthru("php $CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --buildconfig", $code);
-        passthru("php $CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --install", $code);
-        chdir($oldcwd);
-        echo '</pre>';
-        echo $OUTPUT->box_end();
-        if ($code != 0) {
-            tool_phpunit_problem('Can not initialize database');
-        }
-        set_debugging(DEBUG_NONE, false); // Hack: no redirect warning, we really want to redirect.
-        redirect(new moodle_url($PAGE->url, array('execute'=>1, 'tespath'=>$testpath, 'testclass'=>$testclass, 'sesskey'=>sesskey())), 'Reloading page');
-        echo $OUTPUT->footer();
-        die();
-
-    } else if ($code == PHPUNIT_EXITCODE_REINSTALL) {
-        tool_phpunit_header();
-        echo $OUTPUT->box_start('generalbox');
-        echo '<pre>';
-        echo "Reinitialising test database:\n\n";
-        chdir($CFG->dirroot);
-        ignore_user_abort(true);
-        passthru("php $CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --drop", $code);
-        passthru("php $CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --buildconfig", $code);
-        passthru("php $CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --install", $code);
-        chdir($oldcwd);
-        echo '</pre>';
-        echo $OUTPUT->box_end();
-        if ($code != 0) {
-            tool_phpunit_problem('Can not initialize database');
-        }
-        set_debugging(DEBUG_NONE, false); // Hack: no redirect warning, we really want to redirect.
-        redirect(new moodle_url($PAGE->url, array('execute'=>1, 'tespath'=>$testpath, 'testclass'=>$testclass, 'sesskey'=>sesskey())), 'Reloading page');
-        die();
-
-    } else {
-        tool_phpunit_header();
-        echo $OUTPUT->box_start('generalbox');
-        echo '<pre>';
-        echo "Error: $code\n\n";
-        echo implode("\n", $output);
-        echo '</pre>';
-        echo $OUTPUT->box_end();
-        tool_phpunit_problem('Can not execute tests');
-        die();
-    }
-
-    tool_phpunit_header();
-    echo $OUTPUT->box_start('generalbox');
-    echo '<pre>';
-
-    // use the dataroot file
-    $configdir = "$CFG->phpunit_dataroot/phpunit/webrunner.xml";
-    if (!file_exists($configdir)) {
-        passthru("php $CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --buildconfig", $code);
-        if ($code != 0) {
-            tool_phpunit_problem('Can not create configuration file');
-        }
-    }
-    $configdir = escapeshellarg($configdir);
-    // no cleanup of path - this is tricky because we can not use escapeshellarg and friends for escaping,
-    // this is from admin user so PARAM_PATH must be enough
-    chdir($CFG->dirroot);
-    passthru("php $CFG->admin/tool/phpunit/cli/util.php --run -c $configdir $testclass $testpath", $code);
-    chdir($oldcwd);
-
-    echo '</pre>';
-    echo $OUTPUT->box_end();
-
-} else {
-    tool_phpunit_header();
-}
-
-echo $OUTPUT->box_start('generalbox boxwidthwide boxaligncenter');
-echo '<form method="get" action="webrunner.php">';
-echo '<fieldset class="invisiblefieldset">';
-echo '<label for="testpath">Test one file</label> ';
-echo '<input type="text" id="testpath" name="testpath" value="'.s($testpath).'" size="50" /> (all test cases from webrunner.xml if empty)';
-echo '</p>';
-echo '<label for="testclass">Class name</label> ';
-echo '<input type="text" id="testclass" name="testclass" value="'.s($testclass).'" size="50" /> (first class in file if empty)';
-echo '</p>';
-echo '<input type="submit" value="Run" />';
-echo '<input type="hidden" name="execute" value="1" />';
-echo '<input type="hidden" name="sesskey" value="'.sesskey().'" />';
-echo '</fieldset>';
-echo '</form>';
-echo $OUTPUT->box_end();
-echo $OUTPUT->footer();
-die;
-
-
-
-//========================================
-
-/**
- * Print headers and experimental warning
- * @return void
- */
-function tool_phpunit_header() {
-    global $OUTPUT;
-    echo $OUTPUT->header();
-    echo $OUTPUT->heading(get_string('pluginname', 'tool_phpunit'));
-    echo $OUTPUT->box('EXPERIMENTAL: it is recommended to execute PHPUnit tests and init scripts only from command line.', array('generalbox'));
-}
-
-/**
- * Called when PHPUnit can not execute.
- * @param string $message
- * @return void
- */
-function tool_phpunit_problem($message) {
-    global $PAGE;
-    if (!$PAGE->headerprinted) {
-        tool_phpunit_header();
-    }
-    notice($message, new moodle_url('/admin/tool/phpunit/'));
-}
diff --git a/lib/phpunit/classes/util.php b/lib/phpunit/classes/util.php
index 2605f6fde15..844cc74ba94 100644
--- a/lib/phpunit/classes/util.php
+++ b/lib/phpunit/classes/util.php
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ class phpunit_util extends testing_util {
     /**
      * @var array Files to skip when dropping dataroot folder
      */
-    protected static $datarootskipondrop = array('.', '..', 'lock', 'webrunner.xml');
+    protected static $datarootskipondrop = array('.', '..', 'lock');
 
     /**
      * Load global $CFG;
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ class phpunit_util extends testing_util {
     }
 
     /**
-     * Builds dirroot/phpunit.xml and dataroot/phpunit/webrunner.xml files using defaults from /phpunit.xml.dist
+     * Builds dirroot/phpunit.xml file using defaults from /phpunit.xml.dist
      * @static
      * @return bool true means main config file created, false means only dataroot file created
      */
@@ -570,14 +570,6 @@ class phpunit_util extends testing_util {
             }
         }
 
-        // relink - it seems that xml:base does not work in phpunit xml files, remove this nasty hack if you find a way to set xml base for relative refs
-        $data = str_replace('lib/phpunit/', $CFG->dirroot.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'lib'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'phpunit'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $data);
-        $data = preg_replace('|<directory suffix="_test.php">([^<]+)</directory>|',
-            '<directory suffix="_test.php">'.$CFG->dirroot.(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR === '\\' ? '\\\\' : DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR).'$1</directory>',
-            $data);
-        file_put_contents("$CFG->dataroot/phpunit/webrunner.xml", $data);
-        testing_fix_file_permissions("$CFG->dataroot/phpunit/webrunner.xml");
-
         return (bool)$result;
     }