diff --git a/tests/test1276.pl b/tests/test1276.pl
index 74d4651734..df3ad9aeba 100755
--- a/tests/test1276.pl
+++ b/tests/test1276.pl
@@ -23,13 +23,16 @@
 #
 ###########################################################################
 
+use strict;
+use warnings 'FATAL' => 'all';
+
 sub showline {
     my ($l) = @_;
     $l =~ s/([^\x20-\x7f])/sprintf "%%%02x", ord $1/eg;
     return $l;
 }
 
-my $root = $ARGV[0];
+my $root = $ARGV[0] || '..';
 
 open(my $fh, "-|", "perl $root/lib/optiontable.pl < $root/include/curl/curl.h");
 binmode $fh;