diff --git a/cleanup_datasets.sh b/cleanup_datasets.sh
index 21e77bcf048..32a65465a90 100644
--- a/cleanup_datasets.sh
+++ b/cleanup_datasets.sh
@@ -1,36 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-## Set MACHTYPE to something, 
-MACHTYPE=`uname -m`
-[ "$MACHTYPE" = "Power Macintosh" ] && MACHTYPE="powerpc"
-LC_ALL=POSIX
-export MACHTYPE LC_ALL
-
-KERNEL=`uname -s | tr "A-Z" "a-z"`
-ARCH="$KERNEL-$MACHTYPE"
-
-echo "Architecture appears to be $ARCH"
-
-UNIVERSE_HOME=`pwd`
-PYTHONPATH=$UNIVERSE_HOME/lib:$UNIVERSE_HOME/eggs
-export UNIVERSE_HOME PYTHONPATH
-
-## For PBS - if you need to force node paths (i.e. the arch the frontend
-## runs on is not the same arch as the compute nodes or Galaxy is
-## installed in a different path on the node).
-#NODEMACH="i686"
-#NODEARCH="linux-i686"
-#NODEPATH=$PATH
-
-## Certain tools (EMBOSS, PAML...) are not distributed with Galaxy.
-## If you have them installed, add their bin directories to the PATH.
-PATH=$PATH:/depot/apps/$MACHTYPE/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/EMBOSS/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/ImageMagick/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/PAML/paml3.15/bin
-
-## NODEPATH defaults to $PATH
-: ${NODEPATH:=$PATH}
-
-export PATH NODEPATH
-
-echo "python path: $PYTHONPATH"
+source setup_paths.sh
 
 python2.4 ./scripts/cleanup_datasets.py universe_wsgi.ini $@
diff --git a/nosetests.sh b/nosetests.sh
index daa821233e9..ad28e27b3fe 100755
--- a/nosetests.sh
+++ b/nosetests.sh
@@ -1,20 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-## Set MACHTYPE to something, 
-MACHTYPE=`uname -m`
-if [[ $MACHTYPE = "Power Macintosh" ]]; then MACHTYPE="powerpc"; fi
-export MACHTYPE 
-export LC_ALL=POSIX
+source setup_paths.sh
 
-KERNEL=`uname -s | tr "A-Z" "a-z"`
-ARCH="$KERNEL-$MACHTYPE"
-
-echo "Architecture appears to be $ARCH"
-
-export UNIVERSE_HOME=`pwd`
-export PATH=$PATH:$UNIVERSE_HOME/arch/$ARCH/bin:/depot/apps/$MACHTYPE/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/EMBOSS/EMBOSS-3.0.0/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/EMBOSS/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/ImageMagick/bin
-export PYTHONPATH=$UNIVERSE_HOME/lib:$UNIVERSE_HOME/modules:$UNIVERSE_HOME/eggs:$UNIVERSE_HOME/arch/$ARCH/lib/python:eggs/NoseHTML-0.2-py2.4.egg
-
-echo "python path: $PYTHONPATH"
+export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:eggs/NoseHTML-0.2-py2.4.egg
 
 python2.4 ./scripts/nosetests.py $@
diff --git a/run.sh b/run.sh
index 1171c81cc32..4f426c2b834 100644
--- a/run.sh
+++ b/run.sh
@@ -1,35 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-## Set MACHTYPE to something, 
-MACHTYPE=`uname -m`
-[ "$MACHTYPE" = "Power Macintosh" ] && MACHTYPE="powerpc"
-LC_ALL=POSIX
-export MACHTYPE LC_ALL
-
-KERNEL=`uname -s | tr "A-Z" "a-z"`
-ARCH="$KERNEL-$MACHTYPE"
-
-echo "Architecture appears to be $ARCH"
-
-UNIVERSE_HOME=`pwd`
-PYTHONPATH=$UNIVERSE_HOME/lib:$UNIVERSE_HOME/eggs
-export UNIVERSE_HOME PYTHONPATH
-
-## For PBS - if you need to force node paths (i.e. the arch the frontend
-## runs on is not the same arch as the compute nodes or Galaxy is
-## installed in a different path on the node).
-#NODEMACH="i686"
-#NODEARCH="linux-i686"
-#NODEPATH=$PATH
-
-## Certain tools (EMBOSS, PAML...) are not distributed with Galaxy.
-## If you have them installed, add their bin directories to the PATH.
-PATH=$PATH:/depot/apps/$MACHTYPE/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/EMBOSS/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/ImageMagick/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/PAML/paml3.15/bin
-
-## NODEPATH defaults to $PATH
-: ${NODEPATH:=$PATH}
-
-export PATH NODEPATH
+source setup_paths.sh
 
 # Create directories
 CREATE_DIRS="
@@ -43,6 +14,4 @@ for CREATE_DIR in $CREATE_DIRS; do
     fi
 done
 
-echo "python path: $PYTHONPATH"
-
 python2.4 ./scripts/paster.py serve universe_wsgi.ini $@
diff --git a/scripts/check_python_ucs.py b/scripts/check_python_ucs.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..47f6473ac99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check_python_ucs.py
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python2.4
+
+import sys
+
+if sys.maxunicode > 65535:
+    print "UCS4"
+else:
+    print "UCS2"
diff --git a/update_metadata.sh b/update_metadata.sh
index a1153d1d3dc..1e5b1bd5007 100644
--- a/update_metadata.sh
+++ b/update_metadata.sh
@@ -1,36 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-## Set MACHTYPE to something, 
-MACHTYPE=`uname -m`
-[ "$MACHTYPE" = "Power Macintosh" ] && MACHTYPE="powerpc"
-LC_ALL=POSIX
-export MACHTYPE LC_ALL
-
-KERNEL=`uname -s | tr "A-Z" "a-z"`
-ARCH="$KERNEL-$MACHTYPE"
-
-echo "Architecture appears to be $ARCH"
-
-UNIVERSE_HOME=`pwd`
-PYTHONPATH=$UNIVERSE_HOME/lib:$UNIVERSE_HOME/eggs
-export UNIVERSE_HOME PYTHONPATH
-
-## For PBS - if you need to force node paths (i.e. the arch the frontend
-## runs on is not the same arch as the compute nodes or Galaxy is
-## installed in a different path on the node).
-#NODEMACH="i686"
-#NODEARCH="linux-i686"
-#NODEPATH=$PATH
-
-## Certain tools (EMBOSS, PAML...) are not distributed with Galaxy.
-## If you have them installed, add their bin directories to the PATH.
-PATH=$PATH:/depot/apps/$MACHTYPE/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/EMBOSS/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/ImageMagick/bin:/home/universe/$ARCH/PAML/paml3.15/bin
-
-## NODEPATH defaults to $PATH
-: ${NODEPATH:=$PATH}
-
-export PATH NODEPATH
-
-echo "python path: $PYTHONPATH"
+source setup_paths.sh
 
 python2.4 ./scripts/update_metadata.py universe_wsgi.ini $@