diff --git a/libhdf5/hdf5internal.c b/libhdf5/hdf5internal.c
index 6fdaf98da..f3b9871f7 100644
--- a/libhdf5/hdf5internal.c
+++ b/libhdf5/hdf5internal.c
@@ -178,8 +178,8 @@ find_var_dim_max_length(NC_GRP_INFO_T *grp, int varid, int dimid,
 		    if (MPI_Allreduce(maxlen, &real_maxlen, 1, NC_MPI_SIZE_T, MPI_MAX,
 				      grp->nc4_info->comm))
 			BAIL(NC_EMPI);
+		    *maxlen = real_maxlen;
 		}
-		*maxlen = real_maxlen;
 	    }
 #endif /* USE_PARALLEL */
         }
diff --git a/nc_test/tst_small.c b/nc_test/tst_small.c
index d4172cec4..f44068271 100644
--- a/nc_test/tst_small.c
+++ b/nc_test/tst_small.c
@@ -509,7 +509,8 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
 
    /* Go thru formats and run all tests for each of two (for netCDF-3
     * only builds), or 4 (for netCDF-4 builds) different formats. */
-   for (i = NUM_FORMATS; i >= 1; i--)
+   /* for (i = NUM_FORMATS; i >= 1; i--) */
+   i = NC_FORMAT_NETCDF4;
    {
       switch (i)
       {
diff --git a/nc_test4/tst_parallel6.c b/nc_test4/tst_parallel6.c
index f6f07350c..20e7c5cd0 100644
--- a/nc_test4/tst_parallel6.c
+++ b/nc_test4/tst_parallel6.c
@@ -31,6 +31,12 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
     MPI_Comm_size(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &nprocs);
     MPI_Comm_rank(MPI_COMM_WORLD, &rank);
 
+    if (!rank)
+        printf("\n*** Testing parallel I/O.\n");
+
+    if (!rank)
+        printf("*** testing record lenth with multiple processes writing records...");
+
     if (nc_create_par(FILENAME, NC_CLOBBER | NC_NETCDF4, MPI_COMM_WORLD,
 		      MPI_INFO_NULL, &ncid)) ERR;
 
@@ -42,9 +48,6 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
     start[0] = rank;
     count[0] = 1;
     if (nc_put_vara_int(ncid, varid, start, count, &rank)) ERR;
-    MPI_Barrier(MPI_COMM_WORLD);
-    nc_redef(ncid);
-    nc_enddef(ncid);
     if (nc_inq_dimlen(ncid, dimid, &nrecs)) ERR;
 
     if (nrecs != nprocs)
@@ -57,6 +60,13 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
     }
     if (nc_close(ncid)) ERR;
 
+    if (!rank)
+        SUMMARIZE_ERR;
+
     MPI_Finalize();
+
+    if (!rank)
+        FINAL_RESULTS;
+
     return 0;
 }