diff --git a/test_regress/driver.pl b/test_regress/driver.pl
index 5008b753a..b9b220158 100755
--- a/test_regress/driver.pl
+++ b/test_regress/driver.pl
@@ -374,10 +374,12 @@ sub one_test {
                  $test->oprint("FAILED: $test->{errors}\n");
                  my $j = ($opt_jobs>1?" -j":"");
                  my $makecmd = $ENV{VERILATOR_MAKE} || "make$j &&";
+                 my $upperdir = (Cwd::getcwd() =~ /test_regress/
+                                 ? 'test_regress/' : '');
                  push @{$self->{fail_msgs}},
                      ("\t#".$test->soprint("%Error: $test->{errors}\n")
-                      ."\t\t$makecmd test_regress/"
-                      .$test->{pl_filename}
+                      ."\t\t$makecmd "
+                      .$upperdir.$test->{pl_filename}
                       ." ".join(' ', _manual_args())
                       ." --".$test->{scenario}."\n");
                  push @{$self->{fail_tests}}, $test;
@@ -1298,6 +1300,14 @@ sub execute {
     }
 }
 
+sub setenv {
+    my $self = (ref $_[0]? shift : $Self);
+    my $var = shift;
+    my $val = shift;
+    print "\texport $var='$val'\n";
+    $ENV{$var} = $val;
+}
+
 sub inline_checks {
     my $self = (ref $_[0]? shift : $Self);
     return 1 if $self->errors || $self->skips || $self->unsupporteds;
diff --git a/test_regress/t/t_case_huge_prof.pl b/test_regress/t/t_case_huge_prof.pl
index 55977a0c5..2514ab53e 100755
--- a/test_regress/t/t_case_huge_prof.pl
+++ b/test_regress/t/t_case_huge_prof.pl
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ file_grep($Self->{stats}, qr/Optimizations, Tables created\s+(\d+)/i, 10);
 file_grep($Self->{stats}, qr/Optimizations, Combined CFuncs\s+(\d+)/i, 10);
 
 unlink $_ foreach (glob "$Self->{obj_dir}/gmon.out.*");
-$ENV{GMON_OUT_PREFIX} = "$Self->{obj_dir}/gmon.out";
+setenv('GMON_OUT_PREFIX', "$Self->{obj_dir}/gmon.out");
 
 execute(
     check_finished => 1,
diff --git a/test_regress/t/t_flag_getenv.pl b/test_regress/t/t_flag_getenv.pl
index 0ca7ba7eb..638a6ed5f 100755
--- a/test_regress/t/t_flag_getenv.pl
+++ b/test_regress/t/t_flag_getenv.pl
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ if (!$::Driver) { use FindBin; exec("$FindBin::Bin/bootstrap.pl", @ARGV, $0); di
 
 scenarios(vlt => 1);
 
-$ENV{FOOBARTEST} = "gotit";
+setenv('FOOBARTEST', "gotit");
 
 run(
     cmd => ["../bin/verilator --getenv FOOBARTEST"],
diff --git a/test_regress/t/t_flag_skipidentical.pl b/test_regress/t/t_flag_skipidentical.pl
index dafa4fdee..f3be1255c 100755
--- a/test_regress/t/t_flag_skipidentical.pl
+++ b/test_regress/t/t_flag_skipidentical.pl
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ scenarios(vlt => 1);
 
     sleep(2);  # Or else it might take < 1 second to compile and see no diff.
 
-    $ENV{VERILATOR_DEBUG_SKIP_IDENTICAL} = 1;
+    setenv('VERILATOR_DEBUG_SKIP_IDENTICAL', 1);
     compile();
 
     my @newstats = stat($outfile);
diff --git a/test_regress/t/t_vlcov_merge.pl b/test_regress/t/t_vlcov_merge.pl
index 181c9ecbd..a6a6cc3fa 100755
--- a/test_regress/t/t_vlcov_merge.pl
+++ b/test_regress/t/t_vlcov_merge.pl
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ run(cmd => ["../bin/verilator_coverage",
 # really care about ordering. So avoid false failures by sorting.
 # Set LC_ALL as suggested in the sort manpage to avoid sort order
 # changes from the locale.
-$ENV{LC_ALL} = "C";
+setenv('LC_ALL', "C");
 run(cmd => ["sort",
             "$Self->{obj_dir}/coverage.dat",
             "> $Self->{obj_dir}/coverage-sort.dat",