diff --git a/t/t5100-mailinfo.sh b/t/t5100-mailinfo.sh
index 654d8cf3ee..c8d0655454 100755
--- a/t/t5100-mailinfo.sh
+++ b/t/t5100-mailinfo.sh
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ test_expect_success 'respect NULs' '
 
 	git mailsplit -d3 -o. "$DATA/nul-plain" &&
 	test_cmp "$DATA/nul-plain" 001 &&
-	(cat 001 | git mailinfo msg patch) &&
+	git mailinfo msg patch <001 &&
 	test_line_count = 4 patch
 
 '
diff --git a/t/t5317-pack-objects-filter-objects.sh b/t/t5317-pack-objects-filter-objects.sh
index 2ff3eef9a3..79552d6ef7 100755
--- a/t/t5317-pack-objects-filter-objects.sh
+++ b/t/t5317-pack-objects-filter-objects.sh
@@ -455,7 +455,7 @@ test_expect_success 'setup r1 - delete loose blobs' '
 	test_parse_ls_files_stage_oids <ls_files_result |
 	sort >expected &&
 
-	for id in `cat expected | sed "s|..|&/|"`
+	for id in `sed "s|..|&/|" expected`
 	do
 		rm r1/.git/objects/$id || return 1
 	done
diff --git a/t/t5534-push-signed.sh b/t/t5534-push-signed.sh
index b4bc24691c..c91a62b77a 100755
--- a/t/t5534-push-signed.sh
+++ b/t/t5534-push-signed.sh
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ test_expect_success GPGSM 'fail without key and heed user.signingkey x509' '
 		EOF
 		sed -n -e "s/^nonce /NONCE=/p" -e "/^$/q" dst/push-cert
 	) >expect.in &&
-	key=$(cat "${GNUPGHOME}/trustlist.txt" | cut -d" " -f1 | tr -d ":") &&
+	key=$(cut -d" " -f1 <"${GNUPGHOME}/trustlist.txt" | tr -d ":") &&
 	sed -e "s/^KEY=/KEY=${key}/" expect.in >expect &&
 
 	noop=$(git rev-parse noop) &&