diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 10d2d78f9860..589adde39200 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,4 +9,5 @@ book-target/
 
 .DS_Store
 .vscode/
-qemu.log
+*qemu.log
+*qemuoutput.log
diff --git a/examples/esp32c3/runner.sh b/examples/esp32c3/runner.sh
index 1db211197ce8..b9c3fbb3ee70 100755
--- a/examples/esp32c3/runner.sh
+++ b/examples/esp32c3/runner.sh
@@ -8,9 +8,13 @@ outputfilenamecargo=$1
 outputfilename="$outputfilenamecargo".bin
 
 logfile=qemu.log
+qemuoutputfile=qemuoutput.log
 
 qemuexec=qemu-system-riscv32
 
+# Create a temporary directory for all output files
+tempdir=$(mktemp -d) || exit 1
+
 # Building ESP32-C3 image
 espflash save-image --chip esp32c3 --merge "$outputfilenamecargo" "$outputfilename" 1>&2
 
@@ -18,19 +22,37 @@ espflash save-image --chip esp32c3 --merge "$outputfilenamecargo" "$outputfilena
 esptool.py image_info --version 2 "$outputfilename" 1>&2
 
 # Run in QEMU
-$qemuexec -nographic -monitor tcp:127.0.0.1:55555,server,nowait -icount 3 -machine esp32c3 -drive file="$outputfilename",if=mtd,format=raw -serial file:"$logfile" > qemuoutput.log 2>&1 &
+$qemuexec -nographic -monitor tcp:127.0.0.1:55555,server,nowait -icount 3 -machine esp32c3 -drive file="$outputfilename",if=mtd,format=raw -serial file:"$tempdir/$logfile" >"$tempdir"/$qemuoutputfile 2>&1 &
+
+qemupid=$!
 
 # Let it run
 sleep 3s
 
 # Kill QEMU nicely by sending 'q' (quit) over tcp
-echo q | nc -N 127.0.0.1 55555  >> qemuoutput.log 2>&1
+echo q | nc -N 127.0.0.1 55555 >>"$tempdir"/$qemuoutputfile 2>&1
 # Output that will be compared must be printed to stdout
 
+sleep 0.1s
+# If still running, try again nicely
+pgrep -af "qemu-system.*esp32c3.*" >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo q | nc -N 127.0.0.1 55555 >>"$tempdir"/$qemuoutputfile 2>&1
+
+# Ask a bit more firmly with SIGTERM
+pgrep -af "qemu-system.*esp32c3.*" >/dev/null 2>&1 && kill $qemupid >/dev/null 2>&1
+
+pgrep -af "qemu-system.*esp32c3.*" >/dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0.1s >/dev/null 2>&1
+
+# Time to die
+pgrep -af "qemu-system.*esp32c3.*" >/dev/null 2>&1 && kill -9 $qemupid >/dev/null 2>&1
+
 # Make boot phase silent, for debugging change, run with e.g.  $ `env DEBUGGING=true` cargo xtask....
 if [ -n "${DEBUGGING}" ]; then
   # Debugging: strip leading "I (xyz)" where xyz is an incrementing number, and esp_image specifics
-  sed -e 's/esp_image: .*$/esp_image: REDACTED/' -e 's/I\s\([0-9]*\)(.*)/\1/' < $logfile
+  sed -e 's/esp_image: .*$/esp_image: REDACTED/' -e 's/I\s\([0-9]*\)(.*)/\1/' <"$tempdir"/$logfile
 else
-  tail -n +12 "$logfile" | sed -e '/I\s\([0-9]*\)(.*)/d'
+  tail -n +12 "$tempdir/$logfile" | sed -e '/I\s\([0-9]*\)(.*)/d'
 fi
+
+mv "$tempdir/$logfile" "$(basename "$outputfilename")"-$logfile
+mv "$tempdir/$qemuoutputfile" "$(basename "$outputfilename")"-$qemuoutputfile
+rm -r "$tempdir"