Unify all assembler file generators

They now generally conform to the following argument sequence:

    script.pl "$(PERLASM_SCHEME)" [ C preprocessor arguments ... ] \
              $(PROCESSOR) <output file>

However, in the spirit of being able to use these scripts manually,
they also allow for no argument, or for only the flavour, or for only
the output file.  This is done by only using the last argument as
output file if it's a file (it has an extension), and only using the
first argument as flavour if it isn't a file (it doesn't have an
extension).

While we're at it, we make all $xlate calls the same, i.e. the $output
argument is always quoted, and we always die on error when trying to
start $xlate.

There's a perl lesson in this, regarding operator priority...

This will always succeed, even when it fails:

    open FOO, "something" || die "ERR: $!";

The reason is that '||' has higher priority than list operators (a
function is essentially a list operator and gobbles up everything
following it that isn't lower priority), and since a non-empty string
is always true, so that ends up being exactly the same as:

    open FOO, "something";

This, however, will fail if "something" can't be opened:

    open FOO, "something" or die "ERR: $!";

The reason is that 'or' has lower priority that list operators,
i.e. it's performed after the 'open' call.

Reviewed-by: Matt Caswell <matt@openssl.org>
(Merged from https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/9884)

165 files changed, 677 insertions, 481 deletions

diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-586.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-586.pl
index 514a067..1fe8245 100755
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-586.pl
@@ -198,9 +198,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open OUT,">$output";
-*STDOUT=*OUT;
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$x86only = $ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 &static_label("AES_Te");
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-armv4.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-armv4.pl
index 456a469..9367f1f 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-armv4.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-armv4.pl
@@ -39,9 +39,10 @@
 # Profiler-assisted and platform-specific optimization resulted in 16%
 # improvement on Cortex A8 core and ~21.5 cycles per byte.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -49,9 +50,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 $s0="r0";
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-c64xplus.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-c64xplus.pl
index b418c57..d290afc 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-c64xplus.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-c64xplus.pl
@@ -37,8 +37,7 @@
 #	cost of 8x increased pressure on L1D. 8x because you'd have
 #	to interleave both Te and Td tables...
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 ($TEA,$TEB)=("A5","B5");
 ($KPA,$KPB)=("A3","B1");
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-mips.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-mips.pl
index c93edc6..c64933e 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-mips.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-mips.pl
@@ -65,8 +65,12 @@
 # ($t0,$t1,$t2,$t3,$t8,$t9)=map("\$$_",(12..15,24,25));
 # ($s0,$s1,$s2,$s3,$s4,$s5,$s6,$s7)=map("\$$_",(16..23));
 # ($gp,$sp,$fp,$ra)=map("\$$_",(28..31));
-#
-$flavour = shift || "o32"; # supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64
+
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
+$flavour ||= "o32"; # supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i) {
 	$PTR_LA="dla";
@@ -95,17 +99,13 @@ $pf = ($flavour =~ /nubi/i) ? $t0 : $t2;
 
 $big_endian=(`echo MIPSEB | $ENV{CC} -E -`=~/MIPSEB/)?0:1 if ($ENV{CC});
 
-for (@ARGV) {	$output=$_ if (/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/);	}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
-
 if (!defined($big_endian))
 {    $big_endian=(unpack('L',pack('N',1))==1);   }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
-
 my ($MSB,$LSB)=(0,3);	# automatically converted to little-endian
 
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
+
 $code.=<<___;
 #include "mips_arch.h"
 
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-parisc.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-parisc.pl
index b962e99..96ba998 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-parisc.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-parisc.pl
@@ -28,9 +28,12 @@
 #
 # Special thanks to polarhome.com for providing HP-UX account.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output = shift;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$LEVEL		="2.0W";
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-ppc.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-ppc.pl
index 8a3110a..b235b00 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-ppc.pl
@@ -36,7 +36,10 @@
 # ppc_AES_encrypt_compact operates at 42 cycles per byte, while
 # ppc_AES_decrypt_compact - at 55 (in 64-bit build).
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -59,7 +62,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $FRAME=32*$SIZE_T;
 
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-s390x.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-s390x.pl
index 9a15091..1affce3 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-s390x.pl
@@ -89,7 +89,10 @@
 # instructions, which deliver ~70% improvement at 8KB block size over
 # vanilla km-based code, 37% - at most like 512-bytes block size.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -99,8 +102,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$g="g";
 }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $softonly=0;	# allow hardware support
 
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-sparcv9.pl
index c847da3..f806386 100755
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-sparcv9.pl
@@ -37,8 +37,7 @@
 # optimal decrypt procedure]. Compared to GNU C generated code both
 # procedures are more than 60% faster:-)
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $frame="STACK_FRAME";
 $bias="STACK_BIAS";
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-x86_64.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-x86_64.pl
index 6e1dcef..6ab747d 100755
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-x86_64.pl
@@ -33,9 +33,10 @@
 #
 # (*) with hyper-threading off
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -44,7 +45,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $verticalspin=1;	# unlike 32-bit version $verticalspin performs
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aesfx-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aesfx-sparcv9.pl
index eea611d..c59970d 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aesfx-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aesfx-sparcv9.pl
@@ -33,8 +33,7 @@
 # instructions and improve single-block and short-input performance
 # with misaligned data.
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 {
 my ($inp,$out,$key,$rounds,$tmp,$mask) = map("%o$_",(0..5));
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-mb-x86_64.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-mb-x86_64.pl
index 7223de8..72f55db 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-mb-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-mb-x86_64.pl
@@ -42,9 +42,10 @@
 # (*)	Sandy/Ivy Bridge are known to handle high interleave factors
 #	suboptimally;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -74,7 +75,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 	$avx = ($2>=3.0) + ($2>3.0);
 }
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 # void aesni_multi_cbc_encrypt (
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-sha1-x86_64.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-sha1-x86_64.pl
index eb8364f..800bd5f 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-sha1-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-sha1-x86_64.pl
@@ -88,9 +88,10 @@
 # (**)	Execution is fully dominated by integer code sequence and
 #	SIMD still hardly shows [in single-process benchmark;-]
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -114,7 +115,8 @@ $shaext=1;	### set to zero if compiling for 1.0.1
 
 $stitched_decrypt=0;
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 # void aesni_cbc_sha1_enc(const void *inp,
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-sha256-x86_64.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-sha256-x86_64.pl
index e182ecc..0a1dec7 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-sha256-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-sha256-x86_64.pl
@@ -44,9 +44,10 @@
 #	-evp aes-256-cbc-hmac-sha256' will vary by percent or two;
 # (***)	these are SHAEXT results;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -77,7 +78,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 $shaext=$avx;	### set to zero if compiling for 1.0.1
 $avx=1		if (!$shaext && $avx);
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $func="aesni_cbc_sha256_enc";
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-x86.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-x86.pl
index 6b96195..2d04fd6 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-x86.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-x86.pl
@@ -76,9 +76,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open OUT,">$output";
-*STDOUT=*OUT;
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-x86_64.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-x86_64.pl
index 406377a..486ebc8 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aesni-x86_64.pl
@@ -192,9 +192,10 @@ $PREFIX="aesni";	# if $PREFIX is set to "AES", the script
 			# generates drop-in replacement for
 			# crypto/aes/asm/aes-x86_64.pl:-)
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -203,7 +204,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $movkey = $PREFIX eq "aesni" ? "movups" : "movups";
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aesp8-ppc.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aesp8-ppc.pl
index 44056e3..97734b4 100755
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aesp8-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aesp8-ppc.pl
@@ -43,7 +43,10 @@
 # POWER9[le]	4.02/0.86	0.84	1.05
 # POWER9[be]	3.99/0.78	0.79	0.97
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -70,7 +73,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $FRAME=8*$SIZE_T;
 $prefix="aes_p8";
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aest4-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aest4-sparcv9.pl
index cfbdda7..d34a7ef 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aest4-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aest4-sparcv9.pl
@@ -75,8 +75,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "sparcv9_modes.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $::evp=1;	# if $evp is set to 0, script generates module with
 # AES_[en|de]crypt, AES_set_[en|de]crypt_key and AES_cbc_encrypt entry
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aesv8-armx.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aesv8-armx.pl
index 3b3a53b..c132d1d 100755
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/aesv8-armx.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/aesv8-armx.pl
@@ -56,15 +56,18 @@
 # (**)	numbers after slash are for 32-bit code, which is 3x-
 #	interleaved;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $prefix="aes_v8";
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/bsaes-armv7.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/bsaes-armv7.pl
index 7f5219b..b917dbf 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/bsaes-armv7.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/bsaes-armv7.pl
@@ -50,9 +50,10 @@
 # April-August 2013
 # Add CBC, CTR and XTS subroutines and adapt for kernel use; courtesy of Ard.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -60,9 +61,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 my ($inp,$out,$len,$key)=("r0","r1","r2","r3");
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/bsaes-x86_64.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/bsaes-x86_64.pl
index 44651d4..6593f7a 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/bsaes-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/bsaes-x86_64.pl
@@ -97,9 +97,10 @@
 #
 #						<appro@openssl.org>
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -108,7 +109,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 my ($inp,$out,$len,$key,$ivp)=("%rdi","%rsi","%rdx","%rcx");
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-armv8.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-armv8.pl
index c7839b3..4bf4630 100755
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-armv8.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-armv8.pl
@@ -38,15 +38,18 @@
 #	code, but it's constant-time and therefore preferred;
 # (***)	presented for reference/comparison purposes;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $code.=<<___;
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-ppc.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-ppc.pl
index f77deed..1b839e8 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-ppc.pl
@@ -35,7 +35,10 @@
 # (**)	Inadequate POWER6 performance is due to astronomic AltiVec
 #	latency, 9 cycles per simple logical operation.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -61,7 +64,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $code.=<<___;
 .machine	"any"
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-x86.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-x86.pl
index 4a0491a..c1417a8 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-x86.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-x86.pl
@@ -58,9 +58,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open OUT,">$output";
-*STDOUT=*OUT;
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$x86only = $ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-x86_64.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-x86_64.pl
index d304003..51ff5df 100644
--- a/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/aes/asm/vpaes-x86_64.pl
@@ -54,9 +54,10 @@
 #
 #						<appro@openssl.org>
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -65,7 +66,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $PREFIX="vpaes";
diff --git a/crypto/alphacpuid.pl b/crypto/alphacpuid.pl
index 5abb82d..50a4134 100644
--- a/crypto/alphacpuid.pl
+++ b/crypto/alphacpuid.pl
@@ -7,8 +7,7 @@
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 print <<'___';
 .text
diff --git a/crypto/arm64cpuid.pl b/crypto/arm64cpuid.pl
index f25c637..9202776 100755
--- a/crypto/arm64cpuid.pl
+++ b/crypto/arm64cpuid.pl
@@ -7,15 +7,18 @@
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $code.=<<___;
diff --git a/crypto/armv4cpuid.pl b/crypto/armv4cpuid.pl
index f8aeec6..6367cbf 100644
--- a/crypto/armv4cpuid.pl
+++ b/crypto/armv4cpuid.pl
@@ -7,15 +7,18 @@
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $code.=<<___;
diff --git a/crypto/bf/asm/bf-586.pl b/crypto/bf/asm/bf-586.pl
index 91b17c1..8622f5b 100644
--- a/crypto/bf/asm/bf-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/bf/asm/bf-586.pl
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 require "cbc.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/alpha-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/alpha-mont.pl
index 2d282a1..b46c79c 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/alpha-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/alpha-mont.pl
@@ -22,8 +22,7 @@
 # I.e. if you compare 1GHz 21264 and 2GHz Opteron, you'll observe ~2x
 # difference.
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 # int bn_mul_mont(
 $rp="a0";	# BN_ULONG *rp,
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/armv4-gf2m.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/armv4-gf2m.pl
index 0bf6f63..e7a8655 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/armv4-gf2m.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/armv4-gf2m.pl
@@ -39,9 +39,10 @@
 #
 # http://conradoplg.cryptoland.net/files/2010/12/mocrysen13.pdf
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -49,9 +50,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $1";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 $code=<<___;
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/armv4-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/armv4-mont.pl
index 7e0a4d8..72c883f 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/armv4-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/armv4-mont.pl
@@ -54,9 +54,10 @@
 # integer-only on Cortex-A8, ~10-210% on Cortex-A15, ~70-450% on
 # Snapdragon S4.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+my $output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+my $flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -64,9 +65,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $1";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 $num="r0";	# starts as num argument, but holds &tp[num-1]
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/armv8-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/armv8-mont.pl
index c755555..3e92881 100755
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/armv8-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/armv8-mont.pl
@@ -40,15 +40,18 @@
 # 50-70% improvement for RSA4096 sign. RSA2048 sign is ~25% faster
 # on Cortex-A57 and ~60-100% faster on others.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+my $output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+my $flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $1";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 ($lo0,$hi0,$aj,$m0,$alo,$ahi,
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/bn-586.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/bn-586.pl
index 12b5195..2871621 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/bn-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/bn-586.pl
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/c64xplus-gf2m.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/c64xplus-gf2m.pl
index c77fc5e..d491386 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/c64xplus-gf2m.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/c64xplus-gf2m.pl
@@ -23,8 +23,7 @@
 # totally unfair, because this module utilizes Galois Field Multiply
 # instruction.
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 ($rp,$a1,$a0,$b1,$b0)=("A4","B4","A6","B6","A8");   # argument vector
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/co-586.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/co-586.pl
index a0f5a46..d926309 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/co-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/co-586.pl
@@ -10,8 +10,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/ia64-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/ia64-mont.pl
index 1ab5d94..ce51b17 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/ia64-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/ia64-mont.pl
@@ -67,7 +67,8 @@
 # hereafter less for longer keys, while verify - by 74-13%.
 # DSA performance improves by 115-30%.
 
-$output=pop;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
 
 if ($^O eq "hpux") {
     $ADDP="addp4";
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/mips-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/mips-mont.pl
index 3386128..c0b4629 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/mips-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/mips-mont.pl
@@ -52,8 +52,12 @@
 # ($t0,$t1,$t2,$t3,$t8,$t9)=map("\$$_",(12..15,24,25));
 # ($s0,$s1,$s2,$s3,$s4,$s5,$s6,$s7)=map("\$$_",(16..23));
 # ($gp,$sp,$fp,$ra)=map("\$$_",(28..31));
-#
-$flavour = shift || "o32"; # supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64
+
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+# supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64, default is o32
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : "o32";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i) {
 	$PTR_ADD="daddu";	# incidentally works even on n32
@@ -74,8 +78,7 @@ $SAVED_REGS_MASK = ($flavour =~ /nubi/i) ? 0x00fff000 : 0x00ff0000;
 #
 ######################################################################
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i) {
 	$LD="ld";
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/mips.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/mips.pl
index 3597176..af44c97 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/mips.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/mips.pl
@@ -54,9 +54,10 @@
 # has to content with 40-85% improvement depending on benchmark and
 # key length, more for longer keys.
 
-$flavour = shift || "o32";
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : "o32";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i) {
 	$LD="ld";
@@ -91,6 +92,8 @@ if ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i) {
 	$code="#if !(defined (__mips_isa_rev) && (__mips_isa_rev >= 6))\n.set     mips2\n#endif\n";
 }
 
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
+
 # Below is N32/64 register layout used in the original module.
 #
 ($zero,$at,$v0,$v1)=map("\$$_",(0..3));
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/parisc-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/parisc-mont.pl
index 1d66c21..1420840 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/parisc-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/parisc-mont.pl
@@ -69,10 +69,12 @@
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$LEVEL		="2.0W";
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/ppc-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/ppc-mont.pl
index 6e6f3a6..01c8d11 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/ppc-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/ppc-mont.pl
@@ -41,7 +41,10 @@
 # builds. On low-end 32-bit processors performance improvement turned
 # to be marginal...
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /32/) {
 	$BITS=	32;
@@ -94,7 +97,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $sp="r1";
 $toc="r2";
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/ppc.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/ppc.pl
index 21f6963..4b4e6c6 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/ppc.pl
@@ -103,7 +103,10 @@
 #        Performance increase of ~60%
 #        Based on submission from Suresh N. Chari of IBM
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /32/) {
 	$BITS=	32;
@@ -159,7 +162,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $data=<<EOF;
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/ppc64-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/ppc64-mont.pl
index b0277d9..4420a14 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/ppc64-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/ppc64-mont.pl
@@ -80,7 +80,10 @@
 # ppc-mont.pl, but improvement coefficient is not as impressive
 # for longer keys...
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /32/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -108,7 +111,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $FRAME=64;	# padded frame header
 $TRANSFER=16*8;
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/rsaz-avx2.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/rsaz-avx2.pl
index fddb12f..66822ab 100755
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/rsaz-avx2.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/rsaz-avx2.pl
@@ -37,9 +37,10 @@
 # (***)	scalar AD*X code is faster than AVX2 and is preferred code
 #	path for Broadwell;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -72,7 +73,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|based on LLVM) ([3-
 	$addx = ($ver>=3.03);
 }
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT = *OUT;
 
 if ($avx>1) {{{
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/rsaz-x86_64.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/rsaz-x86_64.pl
index e3fe2e7..c41d8e5 100755
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/rsaz-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/rsaz-x86_64.pl
@@ -52,9 +52,10 @@
 #	purposes;
 # (**)	MULX was attempted, but found to give only marginal improvement;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -63,7 +64,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 if (`$ENV{CC} -Wa,-v -c -o /dev/null -x assembler /dev/null 2>&1`
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/s390x-gf2m.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/s390x-gf2m.pl
index afe8d35..85e5eaa 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/s390x-gf2m.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/s390x-gf2m.pl
@@ -32,7 +32,10 @@
 #	so that improvement coefficients can vary from one specific
 #	setup to another.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
         $SIZE_T=4;
@@ -42,8 +45,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
         $g="g";
 }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $stdframe=16*$SIZE_T+4*8;
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/s390x-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/s390x-mont.pl
index 2e82398..00b2d46 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/s390x-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/s390x-mont.pl
@@ -51,7 +51,10 @@
 # On z990 it was measured to perform 2.6-2.2 times better than
 # compiler-generated code, less for longer keys...
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -61,8 +64,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$g="g";
 }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $stdframe=16*$SIZE_T+4*8;
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/sparct4-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/sparct4-mont.pl
index 8e981be..76fffaf 100755
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/sparct4-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/sparct4-mont.pl
@@ -83,8 +83,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "sparcv9_modes.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $code.=<<___;
 #include "sparc_arch.h"
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9-gf2m.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9-gf2m.pl
index d2973f0..d4dda79 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9-gf2m.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9-gf2m.pl
@@ -25,8 +25,7 @@
 # ~100-230% faster than gcc-generated code and ~35-90% faster than
 # the pure SPARCv9 code path.
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $locals=16*8;
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9-mont.pl
index 04c22f8..6348c2a 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9-mont.pl
@@ -49,8 +49,7 @@
 # module still have hidden potential [see TODO list there], which is
 # estimated to be larger than 20%...
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 # int bn_mul_mont(
 $rp="%i0";	# BN_ULONG *rp,
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9a-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9a-mont.pl
index af22d41..a1170c7 100755
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9a-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/sparcv9a-mont.pl
@@ -62,8 +62,10 @@
 # key length, more for longer keys] on USI&II cores and 30-80% - on
 # USIII&IV.
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $fname="bn_mul_mont_fpu";
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/via-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/via-mont.pl
index 1b5cdd8..d873082 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/via-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/via-mont.pl
@@ -88,8 +88,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/vis3-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/vis3-mont.pl
index 9e8f498..53f9920 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/vis3-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/vis3-mont.pl
@@ -25,8 +25,7 @@
 # for reference purposes, because T4 has dedicated Montgomery
 # multiplication and squaring *instructions* that deliver even more.
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $frame = "STACK_FRAME";
 $bias = "STACK_BIAS";
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/x86-gf2m.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/x86-gf2m.pl
index 8bcfcb4..bcc6de0 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/x86-gf2m.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/x86-gf2m.pl
@@ -43,8 +43,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$x86only = $ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/x86-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/x86-mont.pl
index 22baf8f..864816f 100755
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/x86-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/x86-mont.pl
@@ -37,8 +37,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-gf2m.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-gf2m.pl
index d0a7357..f312a0c 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-gf2m.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-gf2m.pl
@@ -27,9 +27,10 @@
 # these coefficients are not ones for bn_GF2m_mul_2x2 itself, as not
 # all CPU time is burnt in it...
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -38,7 +39,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 ($lo,$hi)=("%rax","%rdx");	$a=$lo;
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-mont.pl
index ede009f..aa06345 100755
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-mont.pl
@@ -46,9 +46,10 @@
 #
 # Add MULX/ADOX/ADCX code path.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -57,7 +58,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 if (`$ENV{CC} -Wa,-v -c -o /dev/null -x assembler /dev/null 2>&1`
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-mont5.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-mont5.pl
index 6331566..d6d2764 100755
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-mont5.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/x86_64-mont5.pl
@@ -31,9 +31,10 @@
 # the np argument is not just modulus value, but one interleaved
 # with 0. This is to optimize post-condition...
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -42,7 +43,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 if (`$ENV{CC} -Wa,-v -c -o /dev/null -x assembler /dev/null 2>&1`
diff --git a/crypto/camellia/asm/cmll-x86.pl b/crypto/camellia/asm/cmll-x86.pl
index 5d20669..1a3ec88 100644
--- a/crypto/camellia/asm/cmll-x86.pl
+++ b/crypto/camellia/asm/cmll-x86.pl
@@ -49,8 +49,7 @@ require "x86asm.pl";
 
 $OPENSSL=1;
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/camellia/asm/cmll-x86_64.pl b/crypto/camellia/asm/cmll-x86_64.pl
index 8bebc80..bd1e4c0 100644
--- a/crypto/camellia/asm/cmll-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/camellia/asm/cmll-x86_64.pl
@@ -36,9 +36,10 @@
 # EM64T, pre-Core2 Intel x86_64 CPU, is not as impressive, because it
 # apparently emulates some of 64-bit operations in [32-bit] microcode.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -47,7 +48,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 sub hi() { my $r=shift; $r =~ s/%[er]([a-d])x/%\1h/;    $r; }
diff --git a/crypto/camellia/asm/cmllt4-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/camellia/asm/cmllt4-sparcv9.pl
index 3b2a705..0b3448e 100644
--- a/crypto/camellia/asm/cmllt4-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/camellia/asm/cmllt4-sparcv9.pl
@@ -53,8 +53,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "sparcv9_modes.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $::evp=1;	# if $evp is set to 0, script generates module with
 # Camellia_[en|de]crypt, Camellia_set_key and Camellia_cbc_encrypt
diff --git a/crypto/cast/asm/cast-586.pl b/crypto/cast/asm/cast-586.pl
index ad47b40..9e8d7d9 100644
--- a/crypto/cast/asm/cast-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/cast/asm/cast-586.pl
@@ -18,8 +18,7 @@ push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 require "cbc.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-armv4.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-armv4.pl
index c440296..8a9f6c4 100755
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-armv4.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-armv4.pl
@@ -34,9 +34,10 @@
 #	but then Snapdragon S4 and Cortex-A8 results get
 #	20-25% worse;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -44,9 +45,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output"
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 sub AUTOLOAD()		# thunk [simplified] x86-style perlasm
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-armv8.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-armv8.pl
index 1f51017..aed873d 100755
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-armv8.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-armv8.pl
@@ -44,15 +44,18 @@
 #
 # (*)	slower than 4+1:-(
 
-$flavour=shift;
-$output=shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 sub AUTOLOAD()		# thunk [simplified] x86-style perlasm
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-c64xplus.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-c64xplus.pl
index d81d8ce..dfa8922 100755
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-c64xplus.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-c64xplus.pl
@@ -24,8 +24,7 @@
 # dependent on input length. This module on the other hand is free
 # from such limitation.
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 ($OUT,$INP,$LEN,$KEYB,$COUNTERA)=("A4","B4","A6","B6","A8");
 ($KEYA,$COUNTERB,$STEP)=("A7","B7","A3");
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-ia64.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-ia64.pl
index dd09060..e364142 100644
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-ia64.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-ia64.pl
@@ -15,8 +15,7 @@
 # pass runs slower than expected... Overall result is 15.6 cpb, two
 # cycles more than theoretical estimate.
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT, ">$output" if $output;
+$output = pop and open STDOUT, ">$output";
 
 my @k = map("r$_",(16..31));
 my @x = map("r$_",(38..53));
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-ppc.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-ppc.pl
index b1cb0bd..1db31fa 100755
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-ppc.pl
@@ -44,7 +44,10 @@
 #	instructions, which is why switch to vector-only code pays
 #	off that much;
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -69,7 +72,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $LOCALS=6*$SIZE_T;
 $FRAME=$LOCALS+64+18*$SIZE_T;	# 64 is for local variables
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-s390x.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-s390x.pl
index 1f22b26..1f577b8 100755
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-s390x.pl
@@ -42,7 +42,10 @@ use FindBin qw($Bin);
 use lib "$Bin/../..";
 use perlasm::s390x qw(:DEFAULT :VX :LD AUTOLOAD LABEL INCLUDE);
 
-my $flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+my $output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+my $flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 my ($z,$SIZE_T);
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
@@ -53,9 +56,6 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=8;
 }
 
-my $output;
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-
 my $sp="%r15";
 my $stdframe=16*$SIZE_T+4*8;
 
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-x86.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-x86.pl
index 5fec22e..bcd8eb4 100755
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-x86.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-x86.pl
@@ -40,8 +40,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-x86_64.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-x86_64.pl
index 5584f01..b854e2e 100755
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-x86_64.pl
@@ -58,9 +58,10 @@
 # (vi)	even though Skylake-X can execute AVX512F code and deliver 0.57
 #	cpb in single thread, the corresponding capability is suppressed;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -89,7 +90,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 	$avx = ($2>=3.0) + ($2>3.0);
 }
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 # input parameter block
diff --git a/crypto/des/asm/crypt586.pl b/crypto/des/asm/crypt586.pl
index ab5d173..b611b4e 100644
--- a/crypto/des/asm/crypt586.pl
+++ b/crypto/des/asm/crypt586.pl
@@ -13,8 +13,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/des/asm/des-586.pl b/crypto/des/asm/des-586.pl
index 3d29538..483f195 100644
--- a/crypto/des/asm/des-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/des/asm/des-586.pl
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ require "desboth.pl";
 # format.
 #
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/des/asm/dest4-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/des/asm/dest4-sparcv9.pl
index a7de3a5..0cf25ad 100644
--- a/crypto/des/asm/dest4-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/des/asm/dest4-sparcv9.pl
@@ -34,8 +34,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "sparcv9_modes.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $code.=<<___;
 #include "sparc_arch.h"
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-armv4.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-armv4.pl
index 43a675b..4e6bfef 100755
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-armv4.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-armv4.pl
@@ -33,9 +33,10 @@
 # on benchmark. Lower coefficients are for ECDSA sign, server-side
 # operation. Keep in mind that +200% means 3x improvement.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -43,9 +44,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call  $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 $code.=<<___;
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-armv8.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-armv8.pl
index 4daa8cc..2bcf130 100644
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-armv8.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-armv8.pl
@@ -31,15 +31,18 @@
 # on benchmark. Lower coefficients are for ECDSA sign, server-side
 # operation. Keep in mind that +400% means 5x improvement.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 {
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-avx2.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-avx2.pl
index b8f7834..275aabb 100755
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-avx2.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-avx2.pl
@@ -15,9 +15,10 @@
 # S.Gueron and V.Krasnov, "Fast Prime Field Elliptic Curve Cryptography with
 #                          256 Bit Primes"
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -26,7 +27,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 if (`$ENV{CC} -Wa,-v -c -o /dev/null -x assembler /dev/null 2>&1`
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-ppc64.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-ppc64.pl
index c06a7c0..9443801 100755
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-ppc64.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-ppc64.pl
@@ -25,15 +25,18 @@
 # POWER7		+260-530%
 # POWER8		+220-340%
 
-$flavour = shift;
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 my $sp="r1";
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-sparcv9.pl
index 8878a14..3956a4a 100755
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-sparcv9.pl
@@ -31,8 +31,7 @@
 # on benchmark. Lower coefficients are for ECDSA sign, server-side
 # operation. Keep in mind that +200% means 3x improvement.
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $code.=<<___;
 #include "sparc_arch.h"
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-x86.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-x86.pl
index 8f6b126..b1b0b6b 100755
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-x86.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-x86.pl
@@ -42,8 +42,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-x86_64.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-x86_64.pl
index 7fbc3eb..53b60dd 100755
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/ecp_nistz256-x86_64.pl
@@ -40,9 +40,10 @@
 # higher - for ECDSA sign, relatively fastest server-side operation.
 # Keep in mind that +100% means 2x improvement.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -51,7 +52,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 if (`$ENV{CC} -Wa,-v -c -o /dev/null -x assembler /dev/null 2>&1`
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/x25519-ppc64.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/x25519-ppc64.pl
index 5f6bff1..e2e0a14 100755
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/x25519-ppc64.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/x25519-ppc64.pl
@@ -27,15 +27,18 @@
 # this module delivers more than 2x improvement, and when it does,
 # from 12% to 30% improvement was measured...
 
-$flavour = shift;
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 my $sp = "r1";
diff --git a/crypto/ec/asm/x25519-x86_64.pl b/crypto/ec/asm/x25519-x86_64.pl
index b32a041..14583bd 100755
--- a/crypto/ec/asm/x25519-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/ec/asm/x25519-x86_64.pl
@@ -61,9 +61,10 @@
 #	C implementation, so that comparison is always against
 #	2^51 radix;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -72,7 +73,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 if (`$ENV{CC} -Wa,-v -c -o /dev/null -x assembler /dev/null 2>&1`
diff --git a/crypto/md5/asm/md5-586.pl b/crypto/md5/asm/md5-586.pl
index ea59ed9..74b82f0 100644
--- a/crypto/md5/asm/md5-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/md5/asm/md5-586.pl
@@ -18,8 +18,10 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/md5/asm/md5-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/md5/asm/md5-sparcv9.pl
index db46fff..fd77b8b 100644
--- a/crypto/md5/asm/md5-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/md5/asm/md5-sparcv9.pl
@@ -24,8 +24,10 @@
 # single-process result on 8-core processor, or ~11GBps per 2.85GHz
 # socket.
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 use integer;
 
diff --git a/crypto/md5/asm/md5-x86_64.pl b/crypto/md5/asm/md5-x86_64.pl
index adc2321..c3d8245 100755
--- a/crypto/md5/asm/md5-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/md5/asm/md5-x86_64.pl
@@ -119,9 +119,10 @@ EOF
 }
 
 no warnings qw(uninitialized);
-my $flavour = shift;
-my $output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+my $output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+my $flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 my $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -130,7 +131,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; my $dir=$1; my $xlate;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $code .= <<EOF;
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/aesni-gcm-x86_64.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/aesni-gcm-x86_64.pl
index dcdb6a2..d5ab045 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/aesni-gcm-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/aesni-gcm-x86_64.pl
@@ -40,9 +40,10 @@
 # [1] http://rt.openssl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=2900&user=guest&pass=guest
 # [2] http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/software-support/enabling-high-performance-gcm.pdf
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -70,7 +71,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 	$avx = ($2>=3.0) + ($2>3.0);
 }
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 if ($avx>1) {{{
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-armv4.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-armv4.pl
index 1391b1b..9a3a1f4 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-armv4.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-armv4.pl
@@ -78,9 +78,10 @@
 # *native* byte order on current platform. See gcm128.c for working
 # example...
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -88,9 +89,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 $Xi="r0";	# argument block
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-c64xplus.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-c64xplus.pl
index 1611219..70cef3b 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-c64xplus.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-c64xplus.pl
@@ -26,8 +26,7 @@
 # better, because theoretical [though not necessarily achievable]
 # estimate for "4-bit" table-driven implementation is ~12 cycles.
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 ($Xip,$Htable,$inp,$len)=("A4","B4","A6","B6");	# arguments
 
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-parisc.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-parisc.pl
index 6f45e46..4eccdc7 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-parisc.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-parisc.pl
@@ -27,9 +27,12 @@
 #
 # Special thanks to polarhome.com for providing HP-UX account.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output = shift;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$LEVEL		="2.0W";
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-s390x.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-s390x.pl
index 260c49a..5355a30 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-s390x.pl
@@ -44,7 +44,10 @@
 # it's actually almost 2 times slower. Which is the reason why
 # KIMD-GHASH is not used in gcm_gmult_4bit.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -54,8 +57,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$g="g";
 }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $softonly=0;
 
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-sparcv9.pl
index 281b5f9..b8b1022 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-sparcv9.pl
@@ -53,8 +53,7 @@
 # saturates at ~15.5x single-process result on 8-core processor,
 # or ~20.5GBps per 2.85GHz socket.
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $frame="STACK_FRAME";
 $bias="STACK_BIAS";
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-x86.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-x86.pl
index 12d63ce..5372b48 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-x86.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-x86.pl
@@ -135,8 +135,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$x86only = $ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-x86_64.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-x86_64.pl
index a5d216a..7a3412c 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghash-x86_64.pl
@@ -90,9 +90,10 @@
 #
 # [1] http://rt.openssl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=2900&user=guest&pass=guest
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -120,7 +121,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 	$avx = ($2>=3.0) + ($2>3.0);
 }
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $do4xaggr=1;
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghashp8-ppc.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghashp8-ppc.pl
index 1ae84be..44add79 100755
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghashp8-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghashp8-ppc.pl
@@ -32,8 +32,10 @@
 # aggregated reduction - by 170% or 2.7x (resulting in 0.55 cpb).
 # POWER9 delivers 0.51 cpb.
 
-$flavour=shift;
-$output =shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T=8;
@@ -61,7 +63,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour $output" || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 my ($Xip,$Htbl,$inp,$len)=map("r$_",(3..6));	# argument block
 
diff --git a/crypto/modes/asm/ghashv8-armx.pl b/crypto/modes/asm/ghashv8-armx.pl
index fbc49d1..aa5251d 100644
--- a/crypto/modes/asm/ghashv8-armx.pl
+++ b/crypto/modes/asm/ghashv8-armx.pl
@@ -46,15 +46,18 @@
 #
 # (*)	presented for reference/comparison purposes;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $Xi="x0";	# argument block
diff --git a/crypto/pariscid.pl b/crypto/pariscid.pl
index 47fdce9..aafcb2a 100644
--- a/crypto/pariscid.pl
+++ b/crypto/pariscid.pl
@@ -7,9 +7,12 @@
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output = shift;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$LEVEL		="2.0W";
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-armv4.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-armv4.pl
index 38622af..8d60498 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-armv4.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-armv4.pl
@@ -28,9 +28,10 @@
 #	the cost of 15/12% regression on Cortex-A5/A7, it's even possible
 #	to improve Cortex-A9 result, but then A5/A7 loose more than 20%;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -38,9 +39,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 ($ctx,$inp,$len,$padbit)=map("r$_",(0..3));
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-armv8.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-armv8.pl
index b5dd61e..5ebc572 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-armv8.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-armv8.pl
@@ -35,15 +35,18 @@
 #	i.e. measured result is worse than expected, presumably binary
 #	translator is not almighty;
 
-$flavour=shift;
-$output=shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 my ($ctx,$inp,$len,$padbit) = map("x$_",(0..3));
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-c64xplus.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-c64xplus.pl
index b858e80..2bcdced 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-c64xplus.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-c64xplus.pl
@@ -26,8 +26,7 @@
 # time dependent on input length. This module on the other hand is free
 # from such limitation.
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 ($CTXA,$INPB,$LEN,$PADBIT)=("A4","B4","A6","B6");
 ($H0,$H1,$H2,$H3,$H4,$H4a)=("A8","B8","A10","B10","B2",$LEN);
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-mips.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-mips.pl
index 65d6b5c..a250434 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-mips.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-mips.pl
@@ -56,7 +56,11 @@
 #
 ######################################################################
 
-$flavour = shift || "o32"; # supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+# supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64, default is o32
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : "o32";
 
 die "MIPS64 only" unless ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i);
 
@@ -431,7 +435,7 @@ poly1305_emit:
 ___
 }
 
-$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 print $code;
 close STDOUT;
 
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-ppc.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-ppc.pl
index 2770f5e..fa11afc 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-ppc.pl
@@ -52,7 +52,10 @@
 # not, not one usable in the context. Improvement is ~40% over -m64
 # result above and is ~1.43 on little-endian systems.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -79,7 +82,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $FRAME=24*$SIZE_T;
 
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-ppcfp.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-ppcfp.pl
index e563513..7109165 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-ppcfp.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-ppcfp.pl
@@ -27,7 +27,10 @@
 # POWER7		3.50/+30%
 # POWER8		3.75/+10%
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -54,7 +57,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $LOCALS=6*$SIZE_T;
 $FRAME=$LOCALS+6*8+18*8;
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-s390x.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-s390x.pl
index 73efdd9..7f1f834 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-s390x.pl
@@ -47,7 +47,10 @@ use FindBin qw($Bin);
 use lib "$Bin/../..";
 use perlasm::s390x qw(:DEFAULT :LD :GE :EI :MI1 :VX AUTOLOAD LABEL INCLUDE);
 
-my $flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+my $output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+my $flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 my ($z,$SIZE_T);
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
@@ -58,9 +61,6 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=8;
 }
 
-my $output;
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-
 my $stdframe=16*$SIZE_T+4*8;
 my $sp="%r15";
 
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-sparcv9.pl
index 442b2e2..d7b67b8 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-sparcv9.pl
@@ -41,17 +41,16 @@
 # (***)	Multi-process benchmark saturates at ~12.5x single-process
 #	result on 8-core processor, or ~21GBps per 2.85GHz socket.
 
-my $output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+my $output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+
+open STDOUT,">$output" if $output;
 
 my ($ctx,$inp,$len,$padbit,$shl,$shr)	= map("%i$_",(0..5));
 my ($r0,$r1,$r2,$r3,$s1,$s2,$s3,$h4)	= map("%l$_",(0..7));
 my ($h0,$h1,$h2,$h3, $t0,$t1,$t2)	= map("%o$_",(0..5,7));
 my ($d0,$d1,$d2,$d3)			= map("%g$_",(1..4));
 
-my $output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$stdout";
-
 $code.=<<___;
 #include "sparc_arch.h"
 
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-x86.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-x86.pl
index e8cbe9f..9aa1bc1 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-x86.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-x86.pl
@@ -47,8 +47,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-x86_64.pl b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-x86_64.pl
index 12f9717..c27d877 100755
--- a/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/poly1305/asm/poly1305-x86_64.pl
@@ -63,9 +63,10 @@
 # (***)	strangely enough performance seems to vary from core to core,
 #	listed result is best case;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -94,7 +95,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 	$avx = ($2>=3.0) + ($2>3.0);
 }
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 my ($ctx,$inp,$len,$padbit)=("%rdi","%rsi","%rdx","%rcx");
diff --git a/crypto/ppccpuid.pl b/crypto/ppccpuid.pl
index 0c1e124..de5d7e2 100755
--- a/crypto/ppccpuid.pl
+++ b/crypto/ppccpuid.pl
@@ -7,14 +7,18 @@
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 if ($flavour=~/64/) {
     $CMPLI="cmpldi";
diff --git a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-586.pl b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-586.pl
index db43ca8..ad96740 100644
--- a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-586.pl
@@ -68,8 +68,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$x86only = $ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-c64xplus.pl b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-c64xplus.pl
index f4e0814..0167b05 100644
--- a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-c64xplus.pl
+++ b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-c64xplus.pl
@@ -186,7 +186,6 @@ rc4_options:
 	.align	4
 ___
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 print $code;
 close STDOUT;
diff --git a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-md5-x86_64.pl b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-md5-x86_64.pl
index 83a2985..c9381ca 100644
--- a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-md5-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-md5-x86_64.pl
@@ -53,9 +53,10 @@ my $D="#" if (!$md5);	# if set to "#", MD5 is stitched into RC4(),
 			# to be able to use 'openssl speed rc4' for
 			# benchmarking the stitched subroutine...
 
-my $flavour = shift;
-my $output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+my $output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+my $flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 my $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -64,7 +65,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; my $dir=$1; my $xlate;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 my ($dat,$in0,$out,$ctx,$inp,$len, $func,$nargs);
diff --git a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-parisc.pl b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-parisc.pl
index 7194575..a60f2f9 100644
--- a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-parisc.pl
+++ b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-parisc.pl
@@ -27,9 +27,12 @@
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output = shift;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$LEVEL		="2.0W";
diff --git a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-s390x.pl b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-s390x.pl
index 858ce15..c90013c 100644
--- a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-s390x.pl
@@ -30,7 +30,10 @@
 # remains z/Architecture specific. On z990 it was measured to perform
 # 50% better than code generated by gcc 4.3.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -40,8 +43,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$g="g";
 }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $rp="%r14";
 $sp="%r15";
diff --git a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-x86_64.pl b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-x86_64.pl
index 42e711b..ebca047 100755
--- a/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/rc4/asm/rc4-x86_64.pl
@@ -111,9 +111,10 @@
 #	but more than likely at the cost of the others (see rc4-586.pl
 #	to get the idea)...
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -122,7 +123,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $dat="%rdi";	    # arg1
diff --git a/crypto/rc5/asm/rc5-586.pl b/crypto/rc5/asm/rc5-586.pl
index 592cbd7..70ff5d4 100644
--- a/crypto/rc5/asm/rc5-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/rc5/asm/rc5-586.pl
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 require "cbc.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/ripemd/asm/rmd-586.pl b/crypto/ripemd/asm/rmd-586.pl
index 6d619b8..f6b283c 100644
--- a/crypto/ripemd/asm/rmd-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/ripemd/asm/rmd-586.pl
@@ -16,8 +16,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/s390xcpuid.pl b/crypto/s390xcpuid.pl
index 0bb1004..36f7420 100755
--- a/crypto/s390xcpuid.pl
+++ b/crypto/s390xcpuid.pl
@@ -6,7 +6,10 @@
 # in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -16,8 +19,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$g="g";
 }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $ra="%r14";
 $sp="%r15";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-armv4.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-armv4.pl
index 0bfee48..1ab0e81 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-armv4.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-armv4.pl
@@ -70,9 +70,10 @@
 #	Cortex-Mx, x>=3. Otherwise, non-NEON results for NEON-capable
 #	processors are presented mostly for reference purposes.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -80,9 +81,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 my @C = map("r$_",(0..9));
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-armv8.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-armv8.pl
index 6620690..515491a 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-armv8.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-armv8.pl
@@ -59,15 +59,18 @@
 #	Cortex-A57 to 25% on Cortex-A53. While in comparison to older
 #	compiler this code is at least 2x faster...
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 my @rhotates = ([  0,  1, 62, 28, 27 ],
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx2.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx2.pl
index 56aeb0d..a56756f 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx2.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx2.pl
@@ -476,7 +476,6 @@ iotas:
 .asciz	"Keccak-1600 absorb and squeeze for AVX2, CRYPTOGAMS by <appro\@openssl.org>"
 ___
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 print $code;
 close STDOUT;
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx512.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx512.pl
index bbad46d..be4a7ac 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx512.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx512.pl
@@ -545,7 +545,6 @@ iotas:
 .asciz	"Keccak-1600 absorb and squeeze for AVX-512F, CRYPTOGAMS by <appro\@openssl.org>"
 ___
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 print $code;
 close STDOUT;
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx512vl.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx512vl.pl
index 86d2601..8616050 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx512vl.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-avx512vl.pl
@@ -386,7 +386,6 @@ iotas:
 .asciz	"Keccak-1600 absorb and squeeze for AVX512VL, CRYPTOGAMS by <appro\@openssl.org>"
 ___
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 print $code;
 close STDOUT;
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-c64x.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-c64x.pl
index b196b61..7433c99 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-c64x.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-c64x.pl
@@ -879,7 +879,6 @@ iotas:
 	.align	4
 ___
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 print $code;
 close STDOUT;
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-mmx.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-mmx.pl
index d7a390d..8be05a1 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-mmx.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-mmx.pl
@@ -65,8 +65,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-ppc64.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-ppc64.pl
index 876632b..6f59063 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-ppc64.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-ppc64.pl
@@ -37,7 +37,10 @@
 #	much better (but watch out for them generating code specific
 #	to processor they execute on).
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -53,7 +56,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $FRAME=24*$SIZE_T+6*$SIZE_T+32;
 $LOCALS=6*$SIZE_T;
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-s390x.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-s390x.pl
index 2d5cb41..99cbee3 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-s390x.pl
@@ -30,7 +30,10 @@
 # amount of instruction and assumed instruction issue rate. It's ~2.5x
 # faster than compiler-generated code.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -40,8 +43,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$g="g";
 }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 my @A = map([ 8*$_, 8*($_+1), 8*($_+2), 8*($_+3), 8*($_+4) ], (0,5,10,15,20));
 
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-x86_64.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-x86_64.pl
index fda4ee1..80c7cc4 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600-x86_64.pl
@@ -50,9 +50,10 @@
 #	improved by 14% by replacing rotates with double-precision
 #	shift with same register as source and destination.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -61,7 +62,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 my @A = map([ 8*$_-100, 8*($_+1)-100, 8*($_+2)-100,
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600p8-ppc.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600p8-ppc.pl
index 9a97cfd..0fdc23f 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600p8-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/keccak1600p8-ppc.pl
@@ -25,7 +25,10 @@
 # successor can achieve higher scalar instruction issue rate, then
 # this module will loose... And it does on POWER9 with 12.0 vs. 9.4.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -48,7 +51,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $FRAME=6*$SIZE_T+13*16;	# 13*16 is for v20-v31 offload
 
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-586.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-586.pl
index abc84dd..6622b02 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-586.pl
@@ -123,8 +123,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-armv4-large.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-armv4-large.pl
index cd0b95a..24fc5bf 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-armv4-large.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-armv4-large.pl
@@ -75,9 +75,10 @@
 #
 # Add ARMv8 code path performing at 2.35 cpb on Apple A7.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -85,9 +86,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 $ctx="r0";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-armv8.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-armv8.pl
index 12403eb..f9f3c5f 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-armv8.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-armv8.pl
@@ -33,15 +33,18 @@
 # (**)	Keep in mind that Denver relies on binary translation, which
 #	optimizes compiler output at run-time.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate ) or
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $1";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 ($ctx,$inp,$num)=("x0","x1","x2");
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-c64xplus.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-c64xplus.pl
index 0a45d2f..66f15e2 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-c64xplus.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-c64xplus.pl
@@ -32,8 +32,7 @@
 # service routines are expected to preserve it and for own well-being
 # zero it upon entry.
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 ($CTX,$INP,$NUM) = ("A4","B4","A6");		# arguments
 
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-ia64.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-ia64.pl
index b0c10f8..f1b412d 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-ia64.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-ia64.pl
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@
 # Performance under big-endian OS such as HP-UX is 179MBps*1GHz, which
 # is >50% better than HP C and >2x better than gcc.
 
-$output = pop;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
 
 $code=<<___;
 .ident  \"sha1-ia64.s, version 1.3\"
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-mb-x86_64.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-mb-x86_64.pl
index 243ac5e..0804c58 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-mb-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-mb-x86_64.pl
@@ -38,9 +38,10 @@
 #	in real-life application are somewhat lower, e.g. for 2KB
 #	fragments they range from 30% to 100% (on Haswell);
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -70,7 +71,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 	$avx = ($2>=3.0) + ($2>3.0);
 }
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 # void sha1_multi_block (
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-mips.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-mips.pl
index 86bd88b..0f23b6b 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-mips.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-mips.pl
@@ -52,8 +52,12 @@
 # ($t0,$t1,$t2,$t3,$t8,$t9)=map("\$$_",(12..15,24,25));
 # ($s0,$s1,$s2,$s3,$s4,$s5,$s6,$s7)=map("\$$_",(16..23));
 # ($gp,$sp,$fp,$ra)=map("\$$_",(28..31));
-#
-$flavour = shift || "o32"; # supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64
+
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+# supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64, default is o32
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : "o32"; 
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i) {
 	$PTR_ADD="daddu";	# incidentally works even on n32
@@ -77,8 +81,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i) {
 
 $big_endian=(`echo MIPSEB | $ENV{CC} -E -`=~/MIPSEB/)?0:1 if ($ENV{CC});
 
-for (@ARGV) {	$output=$_ if (/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/);   }
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if (!defined($big_endian))
             {   $big_endian=(unpack('L',pack('N',1))==1);   }
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-parisc.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-parisc.pl
index 11f5b39..00c8537 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-parisc.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-parisc.pl
@@ -26,9 +26,12 @@
 #
 # Special thanks to polarhome.com for providing HP-UX account.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output = shift;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$LEVEL		="2.0W";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-ppc.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-ppc.pl
index ec33895..f7a75b7 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-ppc.pl
@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@
 # PPC970,gcc-4.0.0	+76%	+59%
 # Power6,xlc-7		+68%	+33%
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T	=8;
@@ -53,7 +56,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour ".shift || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 $FRAME=24*$SIZE_T+64;
 $LOCALS=6*$SIZE_T;
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-s390x.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-s390x.pl
index 020a1f1..091e1c0 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-s390x.pl
@@ -40,7 +40,10 @@
 
 $kimdfunc=1;	# magic function code for kimd instruction
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -50,8 +53,7 @@ if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$g="g";
 }
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $K_00_39="%r0"; $K=$K_00_39;
 $K_40_79="%r1";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-sparcv9.pl
index e5c7025..8ef8b5f 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-sparcv9.pl
@@ -32,8 +32,7 @@
 # single-process result on 8-core processor, or ~9GBps per 2.85GHz
 # socket.
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 @X=("%o0","%o1","%o2","%o3","%o4","%o5","%g1","%o7");
 $rot1m="%g2";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-sparcv9a.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-sparcv9a.pl
index ec65336..e0ccea2 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-sparcv9a.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-sparcv9a.pl
@@ -47,8 +47,7 @@ for (@ARGV)	{ $bits=64 if (/\-m64/ || /\-xarch\=v9/); }
 if ($bits==64)	{ $bias=2047; $frame=192; }
 else		{ $bias=0;    $frame=112; }
 
-$output=shift;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $ctx="%i0";
 $inp="%i1";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-thumb.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-thumb.pl
index fe380e9..dbe5754 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-thumb.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-thumb.pl
@@ -26,8 +26,7 @@
 # by over 40%, while code increases by only 10% or 32 bytes. But once
 # again, the goal was to establish _size_ benchmark, not performance.
 
-$output=shift;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $inline=0;
 #$cheat_on_binutils=1;
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-x86_64.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-x86_64.pl
index 5352afc..ab10d36 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha1-x86_64.pl
@@ -93,9 +93,10 @@
 #	because SSSE3 code is compiled unconditionally;
 # (**)	SHAEXT result
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -126,7 +127,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 $shaext=1;	### set to zero if compiling for 1.0.1
 $avx=1		if (!$shaext && $avx);
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $ctx="%rdi";	# 1st arg
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-586.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-586.pl
index 3693f32..b28b62a 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-586.pl
@@ -73,8 +73,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-armv4.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-armv4.pl
index cd01fcb..80c697e 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-armv4.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-armv4.pl
@@ -44,9 +44,10 @@
 #
 # Add ARMv8 code path performing at 2.0 cpb on Apple A7.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -54,9 +55,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 $ctx="r0";	$t0="r0";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-c64xplus.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-c64xplus.pl
index 19d0f72..480b49e 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-c64xplus.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-c64xplus.pl
@@ -26,8 +26,7 @@
 # service routines are expected to preserve it and for own well-being
 # zero it upon entry.
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 ($CTXA,$INP,$NUM) = ("A4","B4","A6");            # arguments
  $K256="A3";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-mb-x86_64.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-mb-x86_64.pl
index b2dba45..167d332 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-mb-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha256-mb-x86_64.pl
@@ -39,9 +39,10 @@
 #	in real-life application are somewhat lower, e.g. for 2KB
 #	fragments they range from 75% to 130% (on Haswell);
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -71,7 +72,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 	$avx = ($2>=3.0) + ($2>3.0);
 }
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 # void sha256_multi_block (
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-586.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-586.pl
index e823f65..c20a673 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-586.pl
@@ -59,8 +59,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0],$ARGV[$#ARGV] eq "386");
 
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-armv4.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-armv4.pl
index 39c943b..410dde2 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-armv4.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-armv4.pl
@@ -57,9 +57,10 @@ $hi="HI";
 $lo="LO";
 # ====================================================================
 
-$flavour = shift;
-if ($flavour=~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/) { $output=$flavour; undef $flavour; }
-else { while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {} }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -67,9 +68,10 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open STDOUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 $ctx="r0";	# parameter block
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-armv8.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-armv8.pl
index b9ba05b..2051157 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-armv8.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-armv8.pl
@@ -54,8 +54,10 @@
 # deliver much less improvement, likely *negative* on Cortex-A5x.
 # Which is why NEON support is limited to SHA256.]
 
-$output=pop;
-$flavour=pop;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
@@ -63,10 +65,11 @@ if ($flavour && $flavour ne "void") {
     ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/arm-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
     die "can't locate arm-xlate.pl";
 
-    open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour $output";
+    open OUT,"| \"$^X\" $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+        or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
     *STDOUT=*OUT;
 } else {
-    open STDOUT,">$output";
+    $output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 }
 
 if ($output =~ /512/) {
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-c64xplus.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-c64xplus.pl
index 2703435..b7a1254 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-c64xplus.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-c64xplus.pl
@@ -29,8 +29,7 @@
 # service routines are expected to preserve it and for own well-being
 # zero it upon entry.
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+($output = pop) =~ m|\.\w+$| and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 ($CTXA,$INP,$NUM) = ("A4","B4","A6");            # arguments
  $K512="A3";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-ia64.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-ia64.pl
index b6fb43a..eccc6c9 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-ia64.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-ia64.pl
@@ -75,7 +75,8 @@
 # To generate code, pass the file name with either 256 or 512 in its
 # name and compiler flags.
 
-$output=pop;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
 
 if ($output =~ /512.*\.[s|asm]/) {
 	$SZ=8;
@@ -107,7 +108,7 @@ if ($output =~ /512.*\.[s|asm]/) {
 	$rounds=64;
 } else { die "nonsense $output"; }
 
-open STDOUT,">$output" || die "can't open $output: $!";
+$output and (open STDOUT,">$output" or die "can't open $output: $!");
 
 if ($^O eq "hpux") {
     $ADDP="addp4";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-mips.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-mips.pl
index 727b36b..c581bdc 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-mips.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-mips.pl
@@ -56,7 +56,14 @@
 # ($s0,$s1,$s2,$s3,$s4,$s5,$s6,$s7)=map("\$$_",(16..23));
 # ($gp,$sp,$fp,$ra)=map("\$$_",(28..31));
 #
-$flavour = shift || "o32"; # supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64
+# if $output doesn't have an extension, it's not an output file
+# so use it for $flavour.
+
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+# supported flavours are o32,n32,64,nubi32,nubi64, default is o32
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : "o32";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64|n32/i) {
 	$PTR_LA="dla";
@@ -83,7 +90,6 @@ $pf = ($flavour =~ /nubi/i) ? $t0 : $t2;
 
 $big_endian=(`echo MIPSEB | $ENV{CC} -E -`=~/MIPSEB/)?0:1 if ($ENV{CC});
 
-for (@ARGV) {	$output=$_ if (/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/);	}
 open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if (!defined($big_endian)) { $big_endian=(unpack('L',pack('N',1))==1); }
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-parisc.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-parisc.pl
index 66774e2..f406426 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-parisc.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-parisc.pl
@@ -32,9 +32,12 @@
 #
 # Special thanks to polarhome.com for providing HP-UX account.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output = shift;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$LEVEL		="2.0W";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-ppc.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-ppc.pl
index 424fe66..722621e 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-ppc.pl
@@ -41,8 +41,10 @@
 # block signals prior calling this routine. For the record, in 32-bit
 # context R2 serves as TLS pointer, while in 64-bit context - R13.
 
-$flavour=shift;
-$output =shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T=8;
@@ -69,7 +71,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour $output" || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 if ($output =~ /512/) {
 	$func="sha512_block_ppc";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-s390x.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-s390x.pl
index 9b38603..65cb883 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-s390x.pl
@@ -43,7 +43,10 @@
 # remains z/Architecture specific. On z990 SHA256 was measured to
 # perform 2.4x and SHA512 - 13x better than code generated by gcc 4.3.
 
-$flavour = shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /3[12]/) {
 	$SIZE_T=4;
@@ -71,7 +74,6 @@ $tbl="%r13";
 $T1="%r14";
 $sp="%r15";
 
-while (($output=shift) && ($output!~/\w[\w\-]*\.\w+$/)) {}
 open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($output =~ /512/) {
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-sparcv9.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-sparcv9.pl
index daf6d22..fca6e86 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-sparcv9.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-sparcv9.pl
@@ -56,8 +56,10 @@
 # saturates at 11.5x single-process result on 8-core processor, or
 # ~11/16GBps per 2.85GHz socket.
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+
+$output and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 if ($output =~ /512/) {
 	$label="512";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-x86_64.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-x86_64.pl
index 18a4385..ef84b09 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-x86_64.pl
@@ -109,9 +109,10 @@
 #	below certain limit makes no difference/sense; to conserve
 #	space SHA256 XOP code path is therefore omitted;
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -142,7 +143,8 @@ if (!$avx && `$ENV{CC} -v 2>&1` =~ /((?:^clang|LLVM) version|.*based on LLVM) ([
 $shaext=1;	### set to zero if compiling for 1.0.1
 $avx=1		if (!$shaext && $avx);
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 if ($output =~ /512/) {
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512p8-ppc.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512p8-ppc.pl
index 4721e0a..9ee3ed7 100755
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512p8-ppc.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512p8-ppc.pl
@@ -40,8 +40,10 @@
 # SHA256	9.7 [15.8]	11.2 [12.5]
 # SHA512	6.1 [10.3]	7.0 [7.9]
 
-$flavour=shift;
-$output =shift;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 if ($flavour =~ /64/) {
 	$SIZE_T=8;
@@ -64,7 +66,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/ppc-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate ppc-xlate.pl";
 
-open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour $output" || die "can't call $xlate: $!";
+open STDOUT,"| $^X $xlate $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 
 if ($output =~ /512/) {
 	$bits=512;
diff --git a/crypto/whrlpool/asm/wp-mmx.pl b/crypto/whrlpool/asm/wp-mmx.pl
index a0ab3a0..39cd220 100644
--- a/crypto/whrlpool/asm/wp-mmx.pl
+++ b/crypto/whrlpool/asm/wp-mmx.pl
@@ -56,8 +56,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/crypto/whrlpool/asm/wp-x86_64.pl b/crypto/whrlpool/asm/wp-x86_64.pl
index 03e9020..e5b5150 100644
--- a/crypto/whrlpool/asm/wp-x86_64.pl
+++ b/crypto/whrlpool/asm/wp-x86_64.pl
@@ -37,9 +37,10 @@
 # 3 on Opteron] and which is *unacceptably* slow with 64-bit
 # operand.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -48,7 +49,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; my $dir=$1; my $xlate;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 sub L() { $code.=".byte	".join(',',@_)."\n"; }
diff --git a/crypto/x86_64cpuid.pl b/crypto/x86_64cpuid.pl
index 6b33737..43e53d6 100644
--- a/crypto/x86_64cpuid.pl
+++ b/crypto/x86_64cpuid.pl
@@ -7,9 +7,10 @@
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -18,7 +19,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+     or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 ($arg1,$arg2,$arg3,$arg4)=$win64?("%rcx","%rdx","%r8", "%r9") :	# Win64 order
diff --git a/crypto/x86cpuid.pl b/crypto/x86cpuid.pl
index f15d557..bf8020d 100644
--- a/crypto/x86cpuid.pl
+++ b/crypto/x86cpuid.pl
@@ -10,9 +10,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC, "${dir}perlasm", "perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open OUT,">$output";
-*STDOUT=*OUT;
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/engines/asm/e_padlock-x86.pl b/engines/asm/e_padlock-x86.pl
index 73e72e6..f579a4d 100644
--- a/engines/asm/e_padlock-x86.pl
+++ b/engines/asm/e_padlock-x86.pl
@@ -42,8 +42,7 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}","${dir}../../crypto/perlasm");
 require "x86asm.pl";
 
-$output=pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output=pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/engines/asm/e_padlock-x86_64.pl b/engines/asm/e_padlock-x86_64.pl
index 63a0532..7982f19 100644
--- a/engines/asm/e_padlock-x86_64.pl
+++ b/engines/asm/e_padlock-x86_64.pl
@@ -19,9 +19,10 @@
 # Assembler helpers for Padlock engine. See even e_padlock-x86.pl for
 # details.
 
-$flavour = shift;
-$output  = shift;
-if ($flavour =~ /\./) { $output = $flavour; undef $flavour; }
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+# $flavour is the first argument if it doesn't look like a file
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+$flavour = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[0] !~ m|\.| ? shift : undef;
 
 $win64=0; $win64=1 if ($flavour =~ /[nm]asm|mingw64/ || $output =~ /\.asm$/);
 
@@ -30,7 +31,8 @@ $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 ( $xlate="${dir}../../crypto/perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl" and -f $xlate) or
 die "can't locate x86_64-xlate.pl";
 
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"$xlate\" $flavour \"$output\""
+     or die "can't call $xlate: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 
 $code=".text\n";
diff --git a/ms/uplink-ia64.pl b/ms/uplink-ia64.pl
index 7287544..757e77d 100755
--- a/ms/uplink-ia64.pl
+++ b/ms/uplink-ia64.pl
@@ -6,8 +6,7 @@
 # in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
 push(@INC,"${dir}.");
diff --git a/ms/uplink-x86.pl b/ms/uplink-x86.pl
index 300ed0d..bad4901 100755
--- a/ms/uplink-x86.pl
+++ b/ms/uplink-x86.pl
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ require "x86asm.pl";
 
 require "uplink-common.pl";
 
-$output = pop;
-open STDOUT,">$output";
+$output = pop and open STDOUT,">$output";
 
 &asm_init($ARGV[0]);
 
diff --git a/ms/uplink-x86_64.pl b/ms/uplink-x86_64.pl
index 9efe5ab..5564c2c 100755
--- a/ms/uplink-x86_64.pl
+++ b/ms/uplink-x86_64.pl
@@ -6,9 +6,12 @@
 # in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
 # https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html
 
-$output=pop;
+# $output is the last argument if it looks like a file (it has an extension)
+$output = $#ARGV >= 0 && $ARGV[$#ARGV] =~ m|\.\w+$| ? pop : undef;
+
 $0 =~ m/(.*[\/\\])[^\/\\]+$/; $dir=$1;
-open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"${dir}../crypto/perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl\" \"$output\"";
+open OUT,"| \"$^X\" \"${dir}../crypto/perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl\" \"$output\""
+    or die "can't call ${dir}../crypto/perlasm/x86_64-xlate.pl: $!";
 *STDOUT=*OUT;
 push(@INC,"${dir}.");