diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 93f2c84..a89edf3 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@
 
     conf.define_cond('WITH_TESTS', conf.env.WITH_TESTS)
     conf.define_cond('WITH_OTHER_TESTS', conf.env.WITH_OTHER_TESTS)
-    conf.define('DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE', '%s/ndn/nfd.conf' % conf.env.SYSCONFDIR)
+    conf.define('DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE', f'{conf.env.SYSCONFDIR}/ndn/nfd.conf')
     # The config header will contain all defines that were added using conf.define()
     # or conf.define_cond().  Everything that was added directly to conf.env.DEFINES
     # will not appear in the config header, but will instead be passed directly to the
@@ -304,16 +304,16 @@
     # first, try to get a version string from git
     gotVersionFromGit = False
     try:
-        cmd = ['git', 'describe', '--always', '--match', '%s*' % GIT_TAG_PREFIX]
-        out = subprocess.check_output(cmd, universal_newlines=True).strip()
+        cmd = ['git', 'describe', '--always', '--match', f'{GIT_TAG_PREFIX}*']
+        out = subprocess.run(cmd, capture_output=True, check=True, text=True).stdout.strip()
         if out:
             gotVersionFromGit = True
             if out.startswith(GIT_TAG_PREFIX):
                 Context.g_module.VERSION = out.lstrip(GIT_TAG_PREFIX)
             else:
                 # no tags matched
-                Context.g_module.VERSION = '%s-commit-%s' % (VERSION_BASE, out)
-    except (OSError, subprocess.CalledProcessError):
+                Context.g_module.VERSION = f'{VERSION_BASE}-commit-{out}'
+    except (OSError, subprocess.SubprocessError):
         pass
 
     versionFile = ctx.path.find_node('VERSION.info')
@@ -331,14 +331,14 @@
                 # already up-to-date
                 return
         except EnvironmentError as e:
-            Logs.warn('%s exists but is not readable (%s)' % (versionFile, e.strerror))
+            Logs.warn(f'{versionFile} exists but is not readable ({e.strerror})')
     else:
         versionFile = ctx.path.make_node('VERSION.info')
 
     try:
         versionFile.write(Context.g_module.VERSION)
     except EnvironmentError as e:
-        Logs.warn('%s is not writable (%s)' % (versionFile, e.strerror))
+        Logs.warn(f'{versionFile} is not writable ({e.strerror})')
 
 def dist(ctx):
     ctx.algo = 'tar.xz'