diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ed85e3bb..00609af2 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -94,14 +94,4 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([
   tests/jobs/config.nix
 ])
 
-AC_CONFIG_FILES([src/script/hydra_build.pl], [chmod +x src/script/hydra_build.pl])
-AC_CONFIG_FILES([src/script/hydra_create.pl], [chmod +x src/script/hydra_create.pl])
-AC_CONFIG_FILES([src/script/hydra_evaluator.pl], [chmod +x src/script/hydra_evaluator.pl])
-AC_CONFIG_FILES([src/script/hydra_queue_runner.pl], [chmod +x src/script/hydra_queue_runner.pl])
-AC_CONFIG_FILES([src/script/hydra_server.pl], [chmod +x src/script/hydra_server.pl])
-AC_CONFIG_FILES([src/script/hydra_update_gc_roots.pl], [chmod +x src/script/hydra_update_gc_roots.pl])
-AC_CONFIG_FILES([tests/query-all-tables.pl], [chmod +x tests/query-all-tables.pl])
-AC_CONFIG_FILES([tests/evaluation-tests.pl], [chmod +x tests/evaluation-tests.pl])
-
 AC_OUTPUT
-
diff --git a/src/script/Makefile.am b/src/script/Makefile.am
index d334d457..14f01d93 100644
--- a/src/script/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/script/Makefile.am
@@ -1,19 +1,19 @@
 EXTRA_DIST = \
-  hydra_control.sh \
-  nix-prefetch-svn \
-  nix-prefetch-git \
-  nix-prefetch-bzr \
-  nix-prefetch-hg 
-
-bin_SCRIPTS = \
-  hydra_build.pl \
-  hydra_evaluator.pl \
-  hydra_queue_runner.pl \
-  hydra_server.pl \
-  hydra_update_gc_roots.pl \
-  hydra_create.pl \
+  hydra-control \
   nix-prefetch-svn \
   nix-prefetch-git \
   nix-prefetch-bzr \
   nix-prefetch-hg \
-  hydra_control.sh
+  $(bin_SCRIPTS)
+
+bin_SCRIPTS = \
+  hydra-build \
+  hydra-evaluator \
+  hydra-queue-runner \
+  hydra-server \
+  hydra-update-gc-roots \
+  hydra-create \
+  nix-prefetch-svn \
+  nix-prefetch-git \
+  nix-prefetch-bzr \
+  nix-prefetch-hg
diff --git a/src/script/hydra_build.pl.in b/src/script/hydra-build
similarity index 99%
rename from src/script/hydra_build.pl.in
rename to src/script/hydra-build
index fe21e9cb..d0d98684 100755
--- a/src/script/hydra_build.pl.in
+++ b/src/script/hydra-build
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#! @perl@ -w -I@nix@/libexec/nix
+#! /var/run/current-system/sw/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
 use File::Basename;
@@ -430,7 +430,7 @@ sub doBuild {
 }
 
 
-my $buildId = $ARGV[0] or die;
+my $buildId = $ARGV[0] or die "syntax: $0 BUILD-ID\n";
 print STDERR "performing build $buildId\n";
 
 if ($ENV{'HYDRA_MAIL_TEST'}) {
diff --git a/src/script/hydra_control.sh b/src/script/hydra-control
similarity index 100%
rename from src/script/hydra_control.sh
rename to src/script/hydra-control
diff --git a/src/script/hydra_create.pl.in b/src/script/hydra-create
similarity index 100%
rename from src/script/hydra_create.pl.in
rename to src/script/hydra-create
diff --git a/src/script/hydra_evaluator.pl.in b/src/script/hydra-evaluator
similarity index 99%
rename from src/script/hydra_evaluator.pl.in
rename to src/script/hydra-evaluator
index a04677d9..9e7371c7 100755
--- a/src/script/hydra_evaluator.pl.in
+++ b/src/script/hydra-evaluator
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#! @perl@ -w -I@nix@/libexec/nix
+#! /var/run/current-system/sw/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
 use feature 'switch';
diff --git a/src/script/hydra_queue_runner.pl.in b/src/script/hydra-queue-runner
similarity index 98%
rename from src/script/hydra_queue_runner.pl.in
rename to src/script/hydra-queue-runner
index a4a6c45d..4410f6ea 100755
--- a/src/script/hydra_queue_runner.pl.in
+++ b/src/script/hydra-queue-runner
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#! @perl@ -w -I@nix@/libexec/nix
+#! /var/run/current-system/sw/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
 use Cwd;
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ sub checkBuilds {
                     open LOG, ">$logfile" or die "cannot create logfile $logfile";
                     POSIX::dup2(fileno(LOG), 1) or die;
                     POSIX::dup2(fileno(LOG), 2) or die;
-                    exec("hydra_build.pl", $id);
+                    exec("hydra-build", $id);
                 };
                 warn "cannot start build $id: $@";
                 POSIX::_exit(1);
diff --git a/src/script/hydra_server.pl.in b/src/script/hydra-server
similarity index 97%
rename from src/script/hydra_server.pl.in
rename to src/script/hydra-server
index 971c6b77..e56e5621 100755
--- a/src/script/hydra_server.pl.in
+++ b/src/script/hydra-server
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#! @perl@ -w -I@nix@/libexec/nix
+#! /var/run/current-system/sw/bin/perl -w
 
 BEGIN {
     $ENV{CATALYST_SCRIPT_GEN} = 40;
diff --git a/src/script/hydra_update_gc_roots.pl.in b/src/script/hydra-update-gc-roots
similarity index 99%
rename from src/script/hydra_update_gc_roots.pl.in
rename to src/script/hydra-update-gc-roots
index 25572ac7..59061a56 100755
--- a/src/script/hydra_update_gc_roots.pl.in
+++ b/src/script/hydra-update-gc-roots
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#! @perl@ -w -I@nix@/libexec/nix
+#! /var/run/current-system/sw/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
 use File::Path;
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index f0f54312..2f720af2 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@ TESTS_ENVIRONMENT =					\
 EXTRA_DIST = \
   $(wildcard *.pm) \
   $(wildcard jobs/*.nix) \
-  $(wildcard jobs/*.sh) 
+  $(wildcard jobs/*.sh) \
+  $(TESTS)
+
+TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = $(perl) -w
 
 TESTS = \
   query-all-tables.pl \
@@ -65,7 +68,7 @@ bzr-repo :
 	touch bzr-repo/bzr-file
 	bzr add bzr-repo/bzr-file
 	BZR_HOME=$(abs_builddir)/data bzr commit -m "add bzr-file" bzr-repo/bzr-file
-	
+
 svn-checkout-repo :
 	ln -s svn-repo svn-checkout-repo
 
diff --git a/tests/evaluation-tests.pl.in b/tests/evaluation-tests.pl
similarity index 98%
rename from tests/evaluation-tests.pl.in
rename to tests/evaluation-tests.pl
index 5ac4daa2..d24a1c8b 100755
--- a/tests/evaluation-tests.pl.in
+++ b/tests/evaluation-tests.pl
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-#! @perl@ -w -I@nix@/libexec/nix
-
 use strict;
 use Hydra::Schema;
 use Hydra::Helper::Nix;
diff --git a/tests/query-all-tables.pl.in b/tests/query-all-tables.pl
similarity index 93%
rename from tests/query-all-tables.pl.in
rename to tests/query-all-tables.pl
index 1d3c9171..bf5cc394 100755
--- a/tests/query-all-tables.pl.in
+++ b/tests/query-all-tables.pl
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-#! @perl@ -w -I@nix@/libexec/nix
-
 use strict;
 use Hydra::Schema;
 use Hydra::Helper::Nix;