diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index a80b23db37..7bcc005dbd 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@ DESTDIR ?=
 # E722 do not use bare 'except'
 PYIGNORE ?= E402,E722
 
-pysources = src/cosalib src/oscontainer.py src/cmd-kola
+pysources = src/cosalib src/oscontainer.py src/cmd-kola $(py2sources)
+py2sources = src/cmdlib.py src/cmd-koji-upload
 
 .PHONY: all check flake8 unittest clean mantle install
 
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ cwd_checked:=$(patsubst ./%,.%.shellchecked,${cwd})
 .%.shellchecked: %
 	./tests/check_one.sh $< $@
 
-check: ${src_checked} ${tests_checked} ${cwd_checked} flake8
+check: ${src_checked} ${tests_checked} ${cwd_checked} flake8 py2syntax
 	echo OK
 
 flake8:
@@ -30,6 +31,9 @@ flake8:
 	# grep -r "^\#\!/usr/bin/py" src/ | cut -d : -f 1 | xargs flake8 --ignore=$(PYIGNORE)
 	# find src -maxdepth 1 -name "*.py" | xargs flake8 --ignore=$(PYIGNORE)
 
+py2syntax:
+	python -m py_compile $(py2sources)
+
 unittest:
 	PYTHONPATH=`pwd`/src python3 -m pytest tests/
 
diff --git a/src/cmd-koji-upload b/src/cmd-koji-upload
index 4944c5ce01..18fa908910 100755
--- a/src/cmd-koji-upload
+++ b/src/cmd-koji-upload
@@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ class Build(_Build):
                 continue
 
             # os.path.getsize uses 1kB instead of 1KB. So we use stat instead.
-            fsize = subprocess.check_output(["stat", "--dereference",  "--format", '%s', lpath])
+            fsize = '{}'.format(os.stat(lpath).st_size)
             log.debug(" * calculating checksum")
             self._found_files[lpath] = {
                 "local_path": lpath,
diff --git a/src/cmdlib.py b/src/cmdlib.py
index c3927997db..10bf8b920a 100755
--- a/src/cmdlib.py
+++ b/src/cmdlib.py
@@ -9,11 +9,6 @@
 import subprocess
 import sys
 import tempfile
-import gi
-import semver
-
-gi.require_version("RpmOstree", "1.0")
-from gi.repository import RpmOstree
 
 from datetime import datetime
 
@@ -101,7 +96,7 @@ def fatal(msg):
     :type msg: str
     :raises: SystemExit
     """
-    print('fatal: {}'.format(msg), file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.stderr.write('fatal: {}\n'.format(msg))
     raise SystemExit(1)
 
 
@@ -112,7 +107,7 @@ def info(msg):
     :param msg: The message to show to output
     :type msg: str
     """
-    print('info: {}'.format(msg), file=sys.stderr)
+    print('info: {}'.format(msg))
 
 
 def rfc3339_time(t=None):
@@ -166,14 +161,14 @@ def import_ostree_commit(repo, commit, tarfile):
 
     # in the common case where we're operating on a recent build, the OSTree
     # commit should already be in the tmprepo
-    commitpartial = os.path.join(repo, f'state/{commit}.commitpartial')
-    if (subprocess.call(['ostree', 'show', '--repo', repo, commit],
-                        stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL,
-                        stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL) == 0
-            and not os.path.isfile(commitpartial)):
+    commitpartial = os.path.join(repo, 'state/{}.commitpartial'.format(commit))
+    have_commit = subprocess.call(['ostree', 'show', '--repo', repo, commit],
+                                  stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL,
+                                  stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL) == 0
+    if have_commit and not os.path.isfile(commitpartial):
         return
 
-    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(dir=f'{repo}/tmp') as d:
+    with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(dir='{}/tmp'.format(repo)) as d:
         subprocess.check_call(['tar', '-C', d, '-xf', tarfile])
         subprocess.check_call(['ostree', 'pull-local', '--repo', repo,
                                d, commit])
@@ -183,6 +178,9 @@ def get_basearch():
     try:
         return get_basearch.saved
     except AttributeError:
+        import gi
+        gi.require_version("RpmOstree", "1.0")
+        from gi.repository import RpmOstree
         get_basearch.saved = RpmOstree.get_basearch()
         return get_basearch.saved
 
@@ -190,6 +188,7 @@ def get_basearch():
 # FIXME: Add tests
 class Builds:  # pragma: nocover
     def __init__(self, workdir=None):
+        import semver
         self._workdir = workdir
         self._fn = self._path("builds/builds.json")
         if not os.path.isdir(self._path("builds")):
@@ -242,11 +241,11 @@ def get_build_dir(self, build_id, basearch=None):
         if build_id == 'latest':
             build_id = self.get_latest()
         if self._legacy:
-            return self._path(f"builds/{build_id}")
+            return self._path("builds/" + build_id)
         if not basearch:
             # just assume caller wants build dir for current arch
             basearch = get_basearch()
-        return self._path(f"builds/{build_id}/{basearch}")
+        return self._path("builds/{}/{}".format(build_id, basearch))
 
     def insert_build(self, build_id, basearch=None):
         if self._legacy: