diff --git a/shootout/fasta/fasta-c.c b/shootout/fasta/fasta-c.c
index bd00efdd8e8eef279676b7b5af2131637509ca84..54344d0f7f6ea197fd4fbda3367b7697b88d79aa 100644
--- a/shootout/fasta/fasta-c.c
+++ b/shootout/fasta/fasta-c.c
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ amino homosapiens[] = {
 #define LENGTH(a) (sizeof(a)/sizeof(a[0]))
 
 static inline void str_write(char *s) {
-   write(fileno(stdout), s, strlen(s));
+    (void)! write(fileno(stdout), s, strlen(s));
 }
 
 void str_repeat(char *s, int outlen) {
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ void str_repeat(char *s, int outlen) {
    int l = 0;
    while (outlen > 0) {
       l = outlen > len ? len : outlen;
-      write(fd, buf, l);
+      (void)! write(fd, buf, l);
       outlen -= len;
    }
    if (buf[l-1] != '\n') str_write("\n");
@@ -107,13 +107,13 @@ void rand_fasta(amino *s, size_t outlen) {
    while (outlen--) {
       buf[i++] = lookup[rnd()];
       if (i == WIDTH) {
-         write(fd, buf, WIDTH + 1);
+         (void)! write(fd, buf, WIDTH + 1);
          i = 0;
       }
    }
    if (i) {
       buf[i] = '\n';
-      write(fd, buf, i + 1);
+      (void)! write(fd, buf, i + 1);
    }
 }
 
diff --git a/shootout/reverse-complement/Makefile b/shootout/reverse-complement/Makefile
index 3dc42dc9b7ea8b9b8d9e98bef21752272ed87260..6679417141d2013fbf502d594dbb4d69286a460a 100644
--- a/shootout/reverse-complement/Makefile
+++ b/shootout/reverse-complement/Makefile
@@ -26,62 +26,34 @@ SLOW_OPTS = 50000000
 # The benchmark game also uses -fllvm, which we can't since it might
 # not be available on the developer's machine.
 
-#------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Create input
-
-fasta-c : ../fasta/fasta-c.c
-	$(CC) -std=gnu99 -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer $< -o $@
-
-reverse-complement.faststdin : fasta-c
-	./fasta-c $(FAST_OPTS) | tr -d '\r' > $@
-
-reverse-complement.stdin : fasta-c
-	./fasta-c $(NORM_OPTS) | tr -d '\r' > $@
-
-reverse-complement.slowstdin : fasta-c
-	./fasta-c $(SLOW_OPTS) | tr -d '\r' > $@
-
 # Since we only decide here what the INPUT_FILE is, it's required to first run
 # `make boot` and only than `make` (otherwise `make` doesn't "see" the file and
 # doesn't call `runstdtest` correctly)
 ifeq "$(mode)" "slow"
  INPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.slowstdin
+ OUTPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.slowstdout
 else
  ifeq "$(mode)" "fast"
   INPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.faststdin
+  OUTPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.faststdout
  else
   INPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.stdin
+  OUTPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.stdout
  endif
 endif
 
-#------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Create output to validate against
-
-revcomp-c : revcomp-c.o
-	$(CC) $< -o $@ -pthread
-
-reverse-complement.faststdout : revcomp-c $(INPUT_FILE)
-	./revcomp-c < $(INPUT_FILE) | tr -d '\r' > $@
-
-reverse-complement.stdout : revcomp-c $(INPUT_FILE)
-	./revcomp-c < $(INPUT_FILE) | tr -d '\r' > $@
+boot :: $(INPUT_FILE) $(OUTPUT_FILE)
 
-reverse-complement.slowstdout : revcomp-c $(INPUT_FILE)
-	./revcomp-c < $(INPUT_FILE) | tr -d '\r' > $@
+# Input/Output files generated with boot.sh script
+# This is a "pattern rule", the '%' is required. Just a trick to tell make
+# that this command generates multiple files.
+reverse-complement%faststdin reverse-complement%faststdout: boot.sh ../fasta/fasta-c.c
+	./boot.sh . . ${HC} $(mode)
 
-# Since we only decide here what the OUTPUT_FILE is, it's required to first run
-# `make boot` and only than `make` (otherwise `make` doesn't "see" the file and
-# doesn't call `runstdtest` correctly)
-ifeq "$(mode)" "slow"
- OUTPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.slowstdout
-else
- ifeq "$(mode)" "fast"
-  OUTPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.faststdout
- else
-  OUTPUT_FILE = reverse-complement.stdout
- endif
-endif
+reverse-complement%stdin reverse-complementi%stdout: boot.sh ../fasta/fasta-c.c
+	./boot.sh . . ${HC} $(mode)
 
-boot :: $(INPUT_FILE) $(OUTPUT_FILE)
+reverse-complement%slowstdin reverse-complement%slowstdout: boot.sh ../fasta/fasta-c.c
+	./boot.sh . . ${HC} $(mode)
 
 include $(TOP)/mk/target.mk
diff --git a/shootout/reverse-complement/boot.sh b/shootout/reverse-complement/boot.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..de7b3a64b06d66054628813823e3b9ff7bc86fa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shootout/reverse-complement/boot.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Arguments:
+# $1 - src folder
+# $2 - output folder
+# $3 - path to ghc
+# $4 - mode
+
+set -e
+src=${1:-.}
+output=${2:-.}
+HC=${3:-ghc}
+mode=${4:-norm}
+
+EXE=""
+if [[ $(shell uname -s | grep -c 'MSYS\|MINGW') -eq 1 ]]
+then
+  EXE=".exe"
+fi
+
+# These values are only used in this file. They are ignored by the
+# executable itself.
+FAST_OPTS=5000000
+NORM_OPTS=50000000
+# Normally, we'd want to have SLOW_OPTS = $((5*NORM_OPTS)) to run this for 5s
+# in 2018. But that means
+#   - slow generation of huge input and output files
+#   - having to diff the generated output files
+#   - the input parser in fasta-c.c overflows, so we're generating an incorrect
+#     reference output
+# So we don't do it.
+SLOW_OPTS=50000000
+# This is the official shootout setting ($((NORM_OPTS/2)), i.e. running 0.5s in
+# 2018):
+# SLOW_OPTS = 25000000
+
+# The benchmark game also uses -fllvm, which we can't since it might
+# not be available on the developer's machine.
+
+case $mode in
+"norm"*)
+  MODE_ARGS=$NORM_OPTS
+  INPUT_FILE=reverse-complement.stdin
+  OUTPUT_FILE=reverse-complement.stdout
+  ;;
+"slow"*)
+  MODE_ARGS=$SLOW_OPTS
+  INPUT_FILE=reverse-complement.slowstdin
+  OUTPUT_FILE=reverse-complement.slowstdout
+  ;;
+*)
+  MODE_ARGS=$FAST_OPTS
+  INPUT_FILE=reverse-complement.faststdin
+  OUTPUT_FILE=reverse-complement.faststdout
+  ;;
+esac
+
+#
+# Create Input
+#
+set -x
+${HC} -O2 ${src}/../fasta/fasta-c.c -c -o ${output}/fasta-c.o
+${HC} -O2 ${output}/fasta-c.o -o ${output}/fasta-c$EXE -no-hs-main
+${output}/fasta-c${EXE} $MODE_ARGS | tr -d '\r' > ${output}/${INPUT_FILE}
+
+#
+# Create Output for validation
+#
+${HC} -O2 ${src}/revcomp-c.c -c -o ${output}/revcomp-c.o
+${HC} -O2 ${output}/revcomp-c.o -o ${output}/revcomp-c$EXE -no-hs-main
+${output}/revcomp-c$EXE < ${output}/${INPUT_FILE} | tr -d '\r' > ${output}/${OUTPUT_FILE}
+
diff --git a/shootout/reverse-complement/revcomp-c.c b/shootout/reverse-complement/revcomp-c.c
index 610c7999e1dc354fc541a4a04da7a5425863b5df..fe9d4f0dfb4c6d3dea40bcb4e5c474269043dac3 100644
--- a/shootout/reverse-complement/revcomp-c.c
+++ b/shootout/reverse-complement/revcomp-c.c
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ int main() {
       free(w);
    }
 
-   write(fileno(stdout), buf, end);
+   (void)! write(fileno(stdout), buf, end);
    free(buf);
 
    return 0;