diff --git a/crypto/aes/asm/aes-586.pl b/crypto/aes/asm/aes-586.pl
index 514a0673c4..1fe8245f39 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 456a469679..9367f1f33b 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 b418c57798..d290afc0af 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 c93edc6ea3..c64933e93c 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 b962e99923..96ba998656 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 8a3110a9a6..b235b00b83 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 9a15091803..1affce3fd2 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 c847da3692..f80638639d 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 6e1dcef230..6ab747d99a 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 eea611d84c..c59970d5cf 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 7223de8a3d..72f55dbd0a 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 eb8364feb0..800bd5ffa0 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 e182ecc55a..0a1dec777b 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 6b96195791..2d04fd6ef9 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 406377a66f..486ebc8d95 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 44056e31aa..97734b4b1d 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 cfbdda7d53..d34a7ef02a 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 3b3a53bf30..c132d1d7fe 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 7f5219bc75..b917dbf1e5 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 44651d437a..6593f7a22e 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 c7839b3208..4bf4630e3d 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 f77deed272..1b839e8cae 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 4a0491a608..c1417a8f74 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 d304003173..51ff5df4d3 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 5abb82d133..50a413438f 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 f25c6373a4..920277666c 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 f8aeec64f0..6367cbffd7 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;
 
 $code.=<<___;
diff --git a/crypto/bf/asm/bf-586.pl b/crypto/bf/asm/bf-586.pl
index 91b17c1b58..8622f5b12a 100644
--- a/crypto/bf/asm/bf-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/bf/asm/bf-586.pl
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ push(@INC,"${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 2d282a1f7a..b46c79ca4f 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 0bf6f63ec5..e7a865581f 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 7e0a4d8145..72c883fe9f 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 c755555d88..3e92881bc0 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 12b51953ab..287162161c 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 c77fc5eef4..d4913867d0 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 a0f5a46979..d9263094b4 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 1ab5d94eaa..ce51b17ef9 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") {
     $ADDP="addp4";
diff --git a/crypto/bn/asm/mips-mont.pl b/crypto/bn/asm/mips-mont.pl
index 3386128ab8..c0b4629184 100644
--- a/crypto/bn/asm/mips-mont.pl
+++ b/crypto/bn/asm/mips-mont.pl
@@ -52,8 +52,12 @@
 # ($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 35971769a6..af44c9786e 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 1d66c21f05..1420840d62 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 6e6f3a65b8..01c8d11bae 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 21f69636c8..4b4e6c6100 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 b0277d95d6..4420a14a0a 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 fddb12ffff..66822abed4 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 e3fe2e7cc4..c41d8e521e 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 afe8d35548..85e5eaa84f 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 2e823989e3..00b2d46798 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 8e981be2a5..76fffaf268 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 d2973f0bcd..d4dda79219 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 04c22f8d11..6348c2a63b 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 af22d41306..a1170c7639 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 1b5cdd8f3a..d873082d4b 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 9e8f498f97..53f9920efe 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 8bcfcb4f8e..bcc6de08a9 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 22baf8fc26..864816fb1a 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 d0a73575e0..f312a0c72a 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 ede009fc16..aa06345fa2 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 6331566c0c..d6d2764e22 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 5d20669597..1a3ec88b39 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 8bebc808a9..bd1e4c060f 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 3b2a7050f5..0b3448ee58 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 $evp is set to 0, script generates module with
 # Camellia_[en|de]crypt, Camellia_set_key and Camellia_cbc_encrypt
diff --git a/crypto/cast/asm/cast-586.pl b/crypto/cast/asm/cast-586.pl
index ad47b406da..9e8d7d9b43 100644
--- a/crypto/cast/asm/cast-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/cast/asm/cast-586.pl
@@ -18,8 +18,7 @@ push(@INC,"${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 c4402961d4..8a9f6c4f19 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 1f51017388..aed873d57e 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 d81d8ce775..dfa89229b0 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 dd090603a9..e3641426fc 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 b1cb0bdc66..1db31fa978 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*$SIZE_T;	# 64 is for local variables
diff --git a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-s390x.pl b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-s390x.pl
index 1f22b26147..1f577b86cd 100755
--- a/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-s390x.pl
+++ b/crypto/chacha/asm/chacha-s390x.pl
@@ -42,7 +42,10 @@ use FindBin qw($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 5fec22eccf..bcd8eb4b6a 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 5584f01704..b854e2e332 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 ab5d173468..b611b4e983 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 3d2953884f..483f19503f 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 a7de3a51f0..0cf25add75 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 43a675b4b2..4e6bfef4b5 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 4daa8cc026..2bcf130bb6 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 b8f783499d..275aabb4a2 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 c06a7c0d02..944380107a 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 8878a1466e..3956a4a901 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 8f6b126417..b1b0b6bc47 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 7fbc3eb4ac..53b60ddbf3 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 5f6bff1850..e2e0a14f49 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 b32a0415d9..14583bd747 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 ea59ed9109..74b82f02cd 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 db46fff7fe..fd77b8b1de 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 adc2321df3..c3d82455d1 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 dcdb6a2db3..d5ab0457f8 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 1391b1b6e0..9a3a1f4e8d 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 1611219806..70cef3bc0f 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 6f45e4614b..4eccdc71be 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 260c49a789..5355a30748 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 281b5f9a61..b8b102282f 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 12d63ceea2..5372b48704 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 a5d216abc9..7a3412c032 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 1ae84bed25..44add7958e 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 fbc49d1c5b..aa5251df9f 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 47fdce9513..aafcb2a9bc 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 38622af1ab..8d6049829d 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 b5dd61e1a9..5ebc57298e 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 b858e8079e..2bcdced7f4 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 65d6b5cdf3..a2504347c2 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 2770f5e79d..fa11afc6e0 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 e563513308..7109165667 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 73efdd9e6d..7f1f8347ed 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 442b2e2cfb..d7b67b8593 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 e8cbe9fd53..9aa1bc1600 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 12f971767b..c27d8779f1 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 0c1e124730..de5d7e2667 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 db43ca8381..ad9674070d 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 f4e0814c0d..0167b05e6a 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 83a298552b..c9381ca9b2 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 7194575087..a60f2f9ea5 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 858ce153f8..c90013cf29 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 42e711b4eb..ebca0473ab 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;
 
 $dat="%rdi";	    # arg1
diff --git a/crypto/rc5/asm/rc5-586.pl b/crypto/rc5/asm/rc5-586.pl
index 592cbd7c76..70ff5d4180 100644
--- a/crypto/rc5/asm/rc5-586.pl
+++ b/crypto/rc5/asm/rc5-586.pl
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@ push(@INC,"${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 6d619b8f89..f6b283c941 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 0bb1004245..36f742068b 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 0bfee48f84..1ab0e8119a 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 662069089a..515491a9db 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 56aeb0d95e..a56756fb31 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 bbad46db7d..be4a7acec2 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 86d260120e..8616050a24 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 b196b618cd..7433c9987e 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 d7a390d843..8be05a1f58 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 876632b1e7..6f5906352d 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 2d5cb417fa..99cbee30b6 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 fda4ee1290..80c7cc437d 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 9a97cfdbf8..0fdc23f689 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 abc84dd6e9..6622b02176 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 cd0b95ade8..24fc5bf430 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 12403eb783..f9f3c5f3cf 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 0a45d2fecd..66f15e22fd 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 b0c10f8a4b..f1b412dcf2 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 243ac5efd9..0804c580be 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 86bd88b04a..0f23b6b074 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 11f5b39997..00c85378e2 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 ec33895df2..f7a75b743e 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 020a1f1b18..091e1c00b3 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 e5c70257e4..8ef8b5fee0 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 ec6533614f..e0ccea2a98 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 fe380e9f97..dbe5754700 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 5352afc3e9..ab10d360c1 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 3693f328f0..b28b62ab07 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 cd01fcb57b..80c697e00c 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 19d0f7222d..480b49e4d0 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 b2dba456b9..167d332405 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 e823f65b1a..c20a673dfc 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 39c943b449..410dde2cde 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 b9ba05ba3b..2051157cca 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 270343522e..b7a12544b9 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 b6fb43a304..eccc6c92e7 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") {
     $ADDP="addp4";
diff --git a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-mips.pl b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-mips.pl
index 727b36bd3c..c581bdcb04 100644
--- a/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-mips.pl
+++ b/crypto/sha/asm/sha512-mips.pl
@@ -56,7 +56,14 @@
 # ($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 66774e2fa1..f406426928 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 424fe66f89..722621ec3f 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 9b38603b88..65cb883166 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 daf6d2260a..fca6e863da 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 18a4385eed..ef84b090db 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 4721e0afd3..9ee3ed7734 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 a0ab3a0acb..39cd220456 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 03e902079e..e5b51501e9 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 6b3373708e..43e53d6fd4 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 f15d55723b..bf8020d2af 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 73e72e61e7..f579a4d933 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 63a0532094..7982f19932 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 7287544079..757e77d29f 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 300ed0d3a8..bad4901802 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 9efe5ab98b..5564c2c7ba 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}.");