diff --git a/xtests/debug b/xtests/debug
deleted file mode 100644
index 1ba35eb..0000000
--- a/xtests/debug
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-DEBUG:exa::fs::file: Statting file "/testcases/attributes/dirs/no-xattrs_empty"
-INFO:exa::fs::dir: Reading directory "/testcases/attributes/dirs/no-xattrs_empty"
diff --git a/xtests/run.sh b/xtests/run.sh
index f1b327b..7a35ee8 100755
--- a/xtests/run.sh
+++ b/xtests/run.sh
@@ -276,8 +276,13 @@ $exa -lt  2>&1 | diff -q - $results/error_lt   || exit 1
 
 
 # Debug mode
-# (uses an empty directory so it prints nothing to stdout)
-EXA_DEBUG="1" $exa $testcases/attributes/dirs/no-xattrs_empty -lh 2>&1 | tail -n 2 | diff -q - $results/debug  || exit 1
+# What gets logged keeps changing, so instead of checking for an exact output,
+# list an empty directory and fail if nothing gets printed.
+DEBUG_OUT=$(EXA_DEBUG="1" $exa $testcases/attributes/dirs/no-xattrs_empty -lh 2>&1)
+if [ -z "$DEBUG_OUT" ]; then
+    echo "Debug test produced no output"
+    exit 1
+fi
 
 
 # And finally...