diff --git a/bin/prove b/bin/prove
index 4617c4f0..6ec5afe5 100755
--- a/bin/prove
+++ b/bin/prove
@@ -291,12 +291,12 @@ parser interprets particular I<sources> of TAP.
 If you want to provide config to the source you can use:
 
   prove --source MyCustom \
-        --source 'Perl: {foo: bar baz, avg: 0.278}' \
-        --source 'File: {extensions: [.txt, .tmp]}' t
+        --source Perl --perl-option 'foo=bar baz' --perl-option avg=0.278 \
+        --source File --file-option extensions=.txt --file-option extensions=.tmp t
 
-In this case you must have L<YAML> installed, and the configuration you pass
-must be a valid YAML string (a C<"\n"> is appended to whatever you pass), or an
-error will be thrown.
+Each C<--$source-option> option must specify a key/value pair separated by an
+C<=>. If an option can take multiple values, just specify it multiple times,
+as with the C<extensions=> examples above.
 
 All C<--sources> are combined into a hash, and passed to L<TAP::Harness/new>'s
 C<sources> parameter.
diff --git a/lib/App/Prove.pm b/lib/App/Prove.pm
index 8e7ff67a..4fba2689 100644
--- a/lib/App/Prove.pm
+++ b/lib/App/Prove.pm
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ sub process_args {
 
     {
         local @ARGV = @args;
-        Getopt::Long::Configure( 'no_ignore_case', 'bundling' );
+        Getopt::Long::Configure(qw(no_ignore_case bundling pass_through));
 
         # Don't add coderefs to GetOptions
         GetOptions(
@@ -420,25 +420,21 @@ sub _load_extensions {
 sub _parse_source {
     my ( $self, $handler ) = @_;
 
-    my ($name, $config);
-    if ($handler =~ /\W/) {
-	eval 'require YAML';
-	if (my $e = $@) {
-	    die "couldn't parse sources '$handler': YAML not available";
-	}
-	my $hash;
-	eval { $hash = YAML::Load( $handler . "\n" ) };
-	if (my $e = $@) {
-	    die "couldn't parse sources '$handler': $e";
-	}
-	($name) = keys %$hash;
-	$config = $hash->{$name};
-    } else {
-	$name = $handler;
-	$config = {};
-    }
-
-    return( $name, $config );
+    # Load any options.
+    (my $opt_name = lc $handler) =~ s/::/-/g;
+    local @ARGV = @{ $self->{argv} };
+    my %config;
+    Getopt::Long::GetOptions("$opt_name-option=s%" => sub {
+        my (undef, $k, $v) = @_;
+        if (exists $config{$k}) {
+            $config{$k} = [ $config{$k} ] unless ref $config{$k} eq 'ARRAY';
+            push @{ $config{$k} } => $v;
+        } else {
+            $config{$k} = $v;
+        }
+    });
+    $self->{argv} = \@ARGV;
+    return ($handler, \%config);
 }
 
 =head3 C<run>
diff --git a/t/prove.t b/t/prove.t
index aeaea621..d1d25398 100644
--- a/t/prove.t
+++ b/t/prove.t
@@ -1121,9 +1121,13 @@ BEGIN {    # START PLAN
 	    skip => $HAS_YAML ? 0 : 1,
 	    skip_reason => "YAML not available",
             switches =>
-	    [ '--source', 'Perl: {foo: bar baz, avg: 0.278}',
+	    [ '--source', 'Perl',
+              '--perl-option', 'foo=bar baz',
+              '--perl-option', 'avg=0.278',
 	      '--source', 'MyCustom',
-	      '--source', 'File: {extensions: [.txt, .tmp]}',
+	      '--source', 'File',
+              '--file-option', 'extensions=.txt',
+              '--file-option', 'extensions=.tmp',
 	      $dummy_test ],
             expect => {
                 sources =>