diff --git a/internal/app/wwctl/container/exec/main.go b/internal/app/wwctl/container/exec/main.go
index 722ba479..58fc60b8 100644
--- a/internal/app/wwctl/container/exec/main.go
+++ b/internal/app/wwctl/container/exec/main.go
@@ -17,9 +17,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 )
 
+/*
+fork off a process with a new PID space
+*/
 func runContainedCmd(args []string) error {
+	logStr := fmt.Sprint(wwlog.GetLogLevel())
 	wwlog.Verbose("Running contained command: %s", args[1:])
-	c := exec.Command("/proc/self/exe", append([]string{"container", "exec", "__child"}, args...)...)
+	c := exec.Command("/proc/self/exe", append([]string{"--loglevel", logStr, "container", "exec", "__child"}, args...)...)
 
 	c.SysProcAttr = &syscall.SysProcAttr{
 		Cloneflags: syscall.CLONE_NEWUTS | syscall.CLONE_NEWPID | syscall.CLONE_NEWNS,
diff --git a/internal/app/wwctl/root.go b/internal/app/wwctl/root.go
index 81fe2a26..cc8927d6 100644
--- a/internal/app/wwctl/root.go
+++ b/internal/app/wwctl/root.go
@@ -31,12 +31,14 @@ var (
 	}
 	verboseArg bool
 	DebugFlag  bool
+	LogLevel   int
 )
 
 func init() {
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&verboseArg, "verbose", "v", false, "Run with increased verbosity.")
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&DebugFlag, "debug", "d", false, "Run with debugging messages enabled.")
-
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().IntVar(&LogLevel, "loglevel", wwlog.INFO, "Set log level to given string")
+	_ = rootCmd.PersistentFlags().MarkHidden("loglevel")
 	rootCmd.SetUsageTemplate(help.UsageTemplate)
 	rootCmd.SetHelpTemplate(help.HelpTemplate)
 
@@ -65,6 +67,9 @@ func rootPersistentPreRunE(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	} else {
 		wwlog.SetLogLevel(wwlog.INFO)
 	}
+	if LogLevel != wwlog.INFO {
+		wwlog.SetLogLevel(LogLevel)
+	}
 	return nil
 }