diff --git a/deepmd/entrypoints/main.py b/deepmd/entrypoints/main.py
index 35273bf4f7..5a674fe3d7 100644
--- a/deepmd/entrypoints/main.py
+++ b/deepmd/entrypoints/main.py
@@ -264,13 +264,21 @@ def main_parser() -> argparse.ArgumentParser:
         type=str,
         help="Frozen model file to import",
     )
-    parser_tst.add_argument(
+    parser_tst_subgroup = parser_tst.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
+    parser_tst_subgroup.add_argument(
         "-s",
         "--system",
         default=".",
         type=str,
         help="The system dir. Recursively detect systems in this directory",
     )
+    parser_tst_subgroup.add_argument(
+        "-f",
+        "--datafile",
+        default=None,
+        type=str,
+        help="The path to file of test list.",
+    )
     parser_tst.add_argument(
         "-S", "--set-prefix", default="set", type=str, help="The set prefix"
     )
diff --git a/deepmd/entrypoints/test.py b/deepmd/entrypoints/test.py
index 76057419f3..a4feaa88f6 100644
--- a/deepmd/entrypoints/test.py
+++ b/deepmd/entrypoints/test.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ def test(
     *,
     model: str,
     system: str,
+    datafile: str,
     set_prefix: str,
     numb_test: int,
     rand_seed: Optional[int],
@@ -39,6 +40,8 @@ def test(
         path where model is stored
     system : str
         system directory
+    datafile : str
+        the path to the list of systems to test
     set_prefix : str
         string prefix of set
     numb_test : int
@@ -57,7 +60,13 @@ def test(
     RuntimeError
         if no valid system was found
     """
-    all_sys = expand_sys_str(system)
+    if datafile is not None:
+        datalist = open(datafile, 'r')
+        all_sys = datalist.read().splitlines()
+        datalist.close()
+    else:
+        all_sys = expand_sys_str(system)
+
     if len(all_sys) == 0:
         raise RuntimeError("Did not find valid system")
     err_coll = []