diff --git a/usr.bin/tee/tee.c b/usr.bin/tee/tee.c
--- a/usr.bin/tee/tee.c
+++ b/usr.bin/tee/tee.c
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@
 	struct entry *p;
 	int n, fd, rval, wval;
 	char *bp;
-	int append, ch, exitval;
+	int append, ch, exitval, oflags;
 	char *buf;
 #define	BSIZE (8 * 1024)
 
@@ -88,13 +88,19 @@
 
 	add(STDOUT_FILENO, "stdout");
 
-	for (exitval = 0; *argv; ++argv)
-		if ((fd = open(*argv, append ? O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_APPEND :
-		    O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, DEFFILEMODE)) < 0) {
+	oflags = O_WRONLY | O_CREAT;
+	if (append)
+		oflags |= O_APPEND;
+	else
+		oflags |= O_TRUNC;
+
+	for (exitval = 0; *argv; ++argv) {
+		if ((fd = open(*argv, oflags, DEFFILEMODE)) < 0) {
 			warn("%s", *argv);
 			exitval = 1;
 		} else
 			add(fd, *argv);
+	}
 
 	if (caph_enter() < 0)
 		err(EXIT_FAILURE, "unable to enter capability mode");