diff --git a/libcontainer/setns_init_linux.go b/libcontainer/setns_init_linux.go
index 5dc7a068488..97987f1d038 100644
--- a/libcontainer/setns_init_linux.go
+++ b/libcontainer/setns_init_linux.go
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/opencontainers/runc/libcontainer/system"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/selinux/go-selinux"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
 )
 
@@ -87,6 +88,7 @@ func (l *linuxSetnsInit) Init() error {
 			return newSystemErrorWithCause(err, "init seccomp")
 		}
 	}
+	logrus.Debugf("setns_init: about to exec")
 	// Close the log pipe fd so the parent's ForwardLogs can exit.
 	if err := unix.Close(l.logFd); err != nil {
 		return newSystemErrorWithCause(err, "closing log pipe fd")
diff --git a/libcontainer/standard_init_linux.go b/libcontainer/standard_init_linux.go
index 60f9b79ed61..d77022ad4d6 100644
--- a/libcontainer/standard_init_linux.go
+++ b/libcontainer/standard_init_linux.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/specs-go"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/selinux/go-selinux"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
 )
 
@@ -181,6 +182,7 @@ func (l *linuxStandardInit) Init() error {
 		return err
 	}
 	// Close the pipe to signal that we have completed our init.
+	logrus.Debugf("init: closing the pipe to signal completion")
 	l.pipe.Close()
 
 	// Close the log pipe fd so the parent's ForwardLogs can exit.
diff --git a/tests/integration/debug.bats b/tests/integration/debug.bats
index cb7fe505c65..b2f87cf5f59 100644
--- a/tests/integration/debug.bats
+++ b/tests/integration/debug.bats
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ function teardown() {
 function check_debug() {
 	[[ "$*" == *"nsexec started"* ]]
 	[[ "$*" == *"child process in init()"* ]]
+	[[ "$*" == *"init: closing the pipe to signal completion"* ]]
 }
 
 @test "global --debug" {
diff --git a/tests/integration/exec.bats b/tests/integration/exec.bats
index b7c9becbf47..f80754a821e 100644
--- a/tests/integration/exec.bats
+++ b/tests/integration/exec.bats
@@ -132,6 +132,38 @@ function teardown() {
 	echo hello >preserve-fds.test
 	# fd 3 is used by bats, so we use 4
 	exec 4<preserve-fds.test
-	output=$(__runc exec --preserve-fds=2 test_busybox cat /proc/self/fd/4)
+	runc exec --preserve-fds=2 test_busybox cat /proc/self/fd/4
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
 	[[ "${output}" == "hello" ]]
 }
+
+function check_exec_debug() {
+	[[ "$*" == *"nsexec started"* ]]
+	[[ "$*" == *"child process in init()"* ]]
+	[[ "$*" == *"setns_init: about to exec"* ]]
+}
+
+@test "runc --debug exec" {
+	runc run -d --console-socket "$CONSOLE_SOCKET" test
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+
+	runc --debug exec test true
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	[[ "${output}" == *"level=debug"* ]]
+	check_exec_debug "$output"
+}
+
+@test "runc --debug --log exec" {
+	runc run -d --console-socket "$CONSOLE_SOCKET" test
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+
+	runc --debug --log log.out exec test true
+	# check output does not include debug info
+	[[ "${output}" != *"level=debug"* ]]
+
+	cat log.out >&2
+	# check expected debug output was sent to log.out
+	output=$(cat log.out)
+	[[ "${output}" == *"level=debug"* ]]
+	check_exec_debug "$output"
+}