diff --git a/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm b/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
index da67f33c7e..3d11cbb453 100644
--- a/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
+++ b/src/test/perl/TestLib.pm
@@ -158,9 +158,12 @@ sub slurp_dir
 
 sub slurp_file
 {
+	my ($filename) = @_;
 	local $/;
-	local @ARGV = @_;
-	my $contents = <>;
+	open(my $in, '<', $filename)
+	  or die "could not read \"$filename\": $!";
+	my $contents = <$in>;
+	close $in;
 	$contents =~ s/\r//g if $Config{osname} eq 'msys';
 	return $contents;
 }
@@ -168,8 +171,8 @@ sub slurp_file
 sub append_to_file
 {
 	my ($filename, $str) = @_;
-
-	open my $fh, ">>", $filename or die "could not open \"$filename\": $!";
+	open my $fh, ">>", $filename
+	  or die "could not write \"$filename\": $!";
 	print $fh $str;
 	close $fh;
 }