diff --git a/tests/scripts/list-enum-consts.pl b/tests/scripts/list-enum-consts.pl
index 4e0baec50..bbb949016 100755
--- a/tests/scripts/list-enum-consts.pl
+++ b/tests/scripts/list-enum-consts.pl
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ use strict;
 use utf8;
 use open qw(:std utf8);
 
+-d 'include/mbedtls' or die "$0: must be run from root\n";
+
 @ARGV = <include/mbedtls/*.h>;
 
 my @consts;
diff --git a/tests/scripts/list-identifiers.sh b/tests/scripts/list-identifiers.sh
index 549f213e6..e144cd2e1 100755
--- a/tests/scripts/list-identifiers.sh
+++ b/tests/scripts/list-identifiers.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,12 @@
 
 set -eu
 
-HEADERS=$( ls include/mbedtls/*.h | egrep -v 'compat-1.2|openssl|bn_mul' )
+if [ -d include/mbedtls ]; then :; else
+    echo "$0: must be run from root" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+HEADERS=$( ls include/mbedtls/*.h | egrep -v 'bn_mul' )
 
 rm -f identifiers
 
@@ -22,7 +27,7 @@ if [ $( wc -l < _identifiers ) -eq $( wc -l < _decls ) ]; then
     egrep -v '^(u?int(16|32|64)_t)$' _identifiers | sort > identifiers
     rm _identifiers
 else
-    echo "Mismatch" 2>&1
+    echo "$0: oops, lost some identifiers" 2>&1
     exit 1
 fi
 
diff --git a/tests/scripts/list-macros.sh b/tests/scripts/list-macros.sh
index b19483170..73859467c 100755
--- a/tests/scripts/list-macros.sh
+++ b/tests/scripts/list-macros.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-set =eu
+set -eu
+
+if [ -d include/mbedtls ]; then :; else
+    echo "$0: must be run from root" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 HEADERS=$( ls include/mbedtls/*.h )
 
diff --git a/tests/scripts/list-symbols.sh b/tests/scripts/list-symbols.sh
index 9f10c620f..ad3f84202 100755
--- a/tests/scripts/list-symbols.sh
+++ b/tests/scripts/list-symbols.sh
@@ -2,8 +2,13 @@
 
 set -eu
 
+if [ -d include/mbedtls ]; then :; else
+    echo "$0: must be run from root" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 if grep -i cmake Makefile >/dev/null; then
-    echo "not compatible with cmake" >&2
+    echo "$0: not compatible with cmake" >&2
     exit 1
 fi