diff --git a/.alltests b/.alltests
index ac30d57386..75ccf9a527 100755
--- a/.alltests
+++ b/.alltests
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 set -e
 
-TOP_DIR=$(python -c "import os; print os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath('$0'))")
+TOP_DIR=$(dirname $(realpath "$0"))
 
 echo "==== Unit tests ===="
 resetswift
diff --git a/.functests b/.functests
index cd3c311298..82638240b8 100755
--- a/.functests
+++ b/.functests
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 # How-To debug functional tests:
 # SWIFT_TEST_IN_PROCESS=1 tox -e func -- --pdb test.functional.tests.TestFile.testCopy
 
-SRC_DIR=$(python -c "import os; print(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath('$0')))")
+SRC_DIR=$(dirname $(realpath "$0"))
 
 cd ${SRC_DIR} > /dev/null
 export TESTS_DIR=${SRC_DIR}/test/functional
diff --git a/.probetests b/.probetests
index 386847f26b..4c8d4dd36a 100755
--- a/.probetests
+++ b/.probetests
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-SRC_DIR=$(python -c "import os; print(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath('$0')))")
+SRC_DIR=$(dirname $(realpath "$0"))
 
 cd ${SRC_DIR}/test/probe
 nosetests --exe $@
diff --git a/.unittests b/.unittests
index 7faed77dce..aecedf813e 100755
--- a/.unittests
+++ b/.unittests
@@ -1,17 +1,9 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-TOP_DIR=$(python -c "import os; print(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath('$0')))")
+TOP_DIR=$(dirname $(realpath "$0"))
 
-python -c 'from distutils.version import LooseVersion as Ver; import nose, sys; sys.exit(0 if Ver(nose.__version__) >= Ver("1.2.0") else 1)'
-if [ $? != 0 ]; then
-    cover_branches=""
-else
-    # Having the HTML reports is REALLY useful for achieving 100% branch
-    # coverage.
-    cover_branches="--cover-branches --cover-html --cover-html-dir=$TOP_DIR/cover"
-fi
 cd $TOP_DIR/test/unit
-nosetests --exe --with-coverage --cover-package swift --cover-erase $cover_branches $@
+nosetests --exe --with-coverage --cover-package swift --cover-erase --cover-branches --cover-html --cover-html-dir="$TOP_DIR"/cover $@
 rvalue=$?
 rm -f .coverage
 cd -