diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 5b1d83ea26232462f960dc699bde350ed7aaba68..0a3c6a72c3b7f82298f71ccb5fb4af0cc2954d5c 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -878,7 +878,7 @@ Linux)
   vhost_crypto="yes"
   vhost_scsi="yes"
   vhost_vsock="yes"
-  QEMU_INCLUDES="-I\$(SRC_PATH)/linux-headers -I$(pwd)/linux-headers $QEMU_INCLUDES"
+  QEMU_INCLUDES="-I\$(SRC_PATH)/linux-headers -I$PWD/linux-headers $QEMU_INCLUDES"
   supported_os="yes"
   libudev="yes"
 ;;
diff --git a/scripts/coccinelle/tcg_gen_extract.cocci b/scripts/coccinelle/tcg_gen_extract.cocci
index 81e66a35ae14bb86bcbf0c1888282283f208a8ad..c10c86348270cb04d828852d1d5764c1327dc5aa 100644
--- a/scripts/coccinelle/tcg_gen_extract.cocci
+++ b/scripts/coccinelle/tcg_gen_extract.cocci
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 //     --keep-comments --in-place \
 //     --use-gitgrep --dir target
 //
-// $ docker run --rm -v `pwd`:`pwd` -w `pwd` philmd/coccinelle \
+// $ docker run --rm -v $PWD:$PWD -w $PWD philmd/coccinelle \
 //     --macro-file scripts/cocci-macro-file.h \
 //     --sp-file scripts/coccinelle/tcg_gen_extract.cocci \
 //     --keep-comments --in-place \
diff --git a/tests/check-block.sh b/tests/check-block.sh
index c3de3789c484b43f953df5e68f8e8303d431cdc8..f3d12fd602d07b4a097a2e7e23ec1aa1c41cbc3c 100755
--- a/tests/check-block.sh
+++ b/tests/check-block.sh
@@ -5,9 +5,9 @@ if [ "$#" -ne 0 ]; then
     FORMAT_LIST="$@"
 fi
 
-export QEMU_PROG="$(pwd)/x86_64-softmmu/qemu-system-x86_64"
-export QEMU_IMG_PROG="$(pwd)/qemu-img"
-export QEMU_IO_PROG="$(pwd)/qemu-io"
+export QEMU_PROG="$PWD/x86_64-softmmu/qemu-system-x86_64"
+export QEMU_IMG_PROG="$PWD/qemu-img"
+export QEMU_IO_PROG="$PWD/qemu-io"
 
 if [ ! -x $QEMU_PROG ]; then
     echo "'make check-block' requires qemu-system-x86_64"
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/check b/tests/qemu-iotests/check
index aa94c6c7ea906e592a33fe53ab04c12de1cd7b00..b37713277d1907a4a08721993a5b04f7f97560df 100755
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/check
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/check
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ set_prog_path()
 }
 
 if [ -z "$TEST_DIR" ]; then
-        TEST_DIR=`pwd`/scratch
+        TEST_DIR=$PWD/scratch
 fi
 
 if [ ! -e "$TEST_DIR" ]; then
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config
index 102aa6878a96f8d7bf2d65d3f727a17ad992d83b..3cda0fe56962485f2a535e891b7fd39a95078558 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.config
@@ -25,8 +25,6 @@ HOSTOS=`uname -s`
 arch=`uname -m`
 [[ "$arch" =~ "ppc64" ]] && qemu_arch=ppc64 || qemu_arch="$arch"
 
-export PWD=`pwd`
-
 # make sure we have a standard umask
 umask 022
 
diff --git a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
index 70ca65b49b3dee17f8ec39146ec14221ebf32a4e..e15e7a7c8e693c56ff0efa8894b30aa535851347 100644
--- a/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
+++ b/tests/qemu-iotests/common.rc
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ fi
 ORIG_TEST_IMG="$TEST_IMG"
 
 if [ -z "$TEST_DIR" ]; then
-        TEST_DIR=`pwd`/scratch
+        TEST_DIR=$PWD/scratch
 fi
 
 QEMU_TEST_DIR="${TEST_DIR}"