diff --git a/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-bzr b/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-bzr
index 054161ae2..7e345320a 100755
--- a/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-bzr
+++ b/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-bzr
@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@ import StringIO
 import atexit, shutil, hashlib, urlparse, subprocess
 
 NAME_RE = re.compile('^([^<>]+)')
-AUTHOR_RE = re.compile('^([^<>]+?)? ?<([^<>]*)>$')
-EMAIL_RE = re.compile('^([^<>]+[^ \\\t<>])?\\b(?:[ \\t<>]*?)\\b([^ \\t<>]+@[^ \\t<>]+)')
+AUTHOR_RE = re.compile('^([^<>]+?)? ?[<>]([^<>]*)(?:$|>)')
+EMAIL_RE = re.compile(r'([^ \t<>]+@[^ \t<>]+)')
 RAW_AUTHOR_RE = re.compile('^(\w+) (.+)? <(.*)> (\d+) ([+-]\d+)')
 
 def die(msg, *args):
@@ -193,8 +193,7 @@ def fixup_user(user):
     else:
         m = EMAIL_RE.match(user)
         if m:
-            name = m.group(1)
-            mail = m.group(2)
+            mail = m.group(1)
         else:
             m = NAME_RE.match(user)
             if m:
diff --git a/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-hg b/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-hg
index c6026b9be..30402d553 100755
--- a/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-hg
+++ b/contrib/remote-helpers/git-remote-hg
@@ -51,8 +51,8 @@ import time as ptime
 #
 
 NAME_RE = re.compile('^([^<>]+)')
-AUTHOR_RE = re.compile('^([^<>]+?)? ?<([^<>]*)>$')
-EMAIL_RE = re.compile('^([^<>]+[^ \\\t<>])?\\b(?:[ \\t<>]*?)\\b([^ \\t<>]+@[^ \\t<>]+)')
+AUTHOR_RE = re.compile('^([^<>]+?)? ?[<>]([^<>]*)(?:$|>)')
+EMAIL_RE = re.compile(r'([^ \t<>]+@[^ \t<>]+)')
 AUTHOR_HG_RE = re.compile('^(.*?) ?<(.*?)(?:>(.+)?)?$')
 RAW_AUTHOR_RE = re.compile('^(\w+) (?:(.+)? )?<(.*)> (\d+) ([+-]\d+)')
 
@@ -316,8 +316,7 @@ def fixup_user_git(user):
     else:
         m = EMAIL_RE.match(user)
         if m:
-            name = m.group(1)
-            mail = m.group(2)
+            mail = m.group(1)
         else:
             m = NAME_RE.match(user)
             if m:
diff --git a/contrib/remote-helpers/test-bzr.sh b/contrib/remote-helpers/test-bzr.sh
index 5c5025178..1e53ff9a5 100755
--- a/contrib/remote-helpers/test-bzr.sh
+++ b/contrib/remote-helpers/test-bzr.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 
 test_description='Test remote-bzr'
 
-. ./test-lib.sh
+test -n "$TEST_DIRECTORY" || TEST_DIRECTORY=${0%/*}/../../t
+. "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/test-lib.sh
 
 if ! test_have_prereq PYTHON
 then
@@ -378,7 +379,7 @@ test_expect_success 'export utf-8 authors' '
 	git add content &&
 	git commit -m one &&
 	git remote add bzr "bzr::../bzrrepo" &&
-	git push bzr
+	git push bzr master
 	) &&
 
 	(
diff --git a/contrib/remote-helpers/test-hg.sh b/contrib/remote-helpers/test-hg.sh
index 72f745d63..347e81292 100755
--- a/contrib/remote-helpers/test-hg.sh
+++ b/contrib/remote-helpers/test-hg.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@
 
 test_description='Test remote-hg'
 
-. ./test-lib.sh
+test -n "$TEST_DIRECTORY" || TEST_DIRECTORY=${0%/*}/../../t
+. "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/test-lib.sh
 
 if ! test_have_prereq PYTHON
 then
@@ -53,14 +54,14 @@ check_bookmark () {
 }
 
 check_push () {
-	local expected_ret=$1 ret=0 ref_ret=0 IFS=':'
+	expected_ret=$1 ret=0 ref_ret=0
 
 	shift
 	git push origin "$@" 2>error
 	ret=$?
 	cat error
 
-	while read branch kind
+	while IFS=':' read branch kind
 	do
 		case "$kind" in
 		'new')
@@ -82,7 +83,7 @@ check_push () {
 		test $ref_ret -ne 0 && echo "match for '$branch' failed" && break
 	done
 
-	if test $expected_ret -ne $ret -o $ref_ret -ne 0
+	if test $expected_ret -ne $ret || test $ref_ret -ne 0
 	then
 		return 1
 	fi
@@ -205,16 +206,17 @@ test_expect_success 'authors' '
 
 	>../expected &&
 	author_test alpha "" "H G Wells <wells@example.com>" &&
-	author_test beta "test" "test <unknown>" &&
-	author_test beta "test <test@example.com> (comment)" "test <test@example.com>" &&
-	author_test gamma "<test@example.com>" "Unknown <test@example.com>" &&
-	author_test delta "name<test@example.com>" "name <test@example.com>" &&
-	author_test epsilon "name <test@example.com" "name <test@example.com>" &&
-	author_test zeta " test " "test <unknown>" &&
-	author_test eta "test < test@example.com >" "test <test@example.com>" &&
-	author_test theta "test >test@example.com>" "test <test@example.com>" &&
-	author_test iota "test < test <at> example <dot> com>" "test <unknown>" &&
-	author_test kappa "test@example.com" "Unknown <test@example.com>"
+	author_test beta "beta" "beta <unknown>" &&
+	author_test gamma "gamma <test@example.com> (comment)" "gamma <test@example.com>" &&
+	author_test delta "<delta@example.com>" "Unknown <delta@example.com>" &&
+	author_test epsilon "epsilon<test@example.com>" "epsilon <test@example.com>" &&
+	author_test zeta "zeta <test@example.com" "zeta <test@example.com>" &&
+	author_test eta " eta " "eta <unknown>" &&
+	author_test theta "theta < test@example.com >" "theta <test@example.com>" &&
+	author_test iota "iota >test@example.com>" "iota <test@example.com>" &&
+	author_test kappa "kappa < test <at> example <dot> com>" "kappa <unknown>" &&
+	author_test lambda "lambda@example.com" "Unknown <lambda@example.com>" &&
+	author_test mu "mu.mu@example.com" "Unknown <mu.mu@example.com>"
 	) &&
 
 	git clone "hg::hgrepo" gitrepo &&
diff --git a/t/test-lib.sh b/t/test-lib.sh
index b25249ec4..d303e6c94 100644
--- a/t/test-lib.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib.sh
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ then
 	# outside of t/, e.g. for running tests on the test library
 	# itself.
 	TEST_DIRECTORY=$(pwd)
+else
+	# ensure that TEST_DIRECTORY is an absolute path so that it
+	# is valid even if the current working directory is changed
+	TEST_DIRECTORY=$(cd "$TEST_DIRECTORY" && pwd) || exit 1
 fi
 if test -z "$TEST_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY"
 then