diff --git a/daemon/libvirtd.c b/daemon/libvirtd.c
index b27c6fda6f..72f0e81e67 100644
--- a/daemon/libvirtd.c
+++ b/daemon/libvirtd.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * libvirtd.c: daemon start of day, guest process & i/o management
  *
- * Copyright (C) 2006-2012 Red Hat, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2006-2014 Red Hat, Inc.
  * Copyright (C) 2006 Daniel P. Berrange
  *
  * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ static int daemonForkIntoBackground(const char *argv0)
             VIR_FORCE_CLOSE(statuspipe[1]);
 
             /* We wait to make sure the first child forked successfully */
-            if (virProcessWait(pid, NULL) < 0)
+            if (virProcessWait(pid, NULL, false) < 0)
                 goto error;
 
             /* If we get here, then the grandchild was spawned, so we
diff --git a/src/lxc/lxc_container.c b/src/lxc/lxc_container.c
index 71548043eb..f2440ff92b 100644
--- a/src/lxc/lxc_container.c
+++ b/src/lxc/lxc_container.c
@@ -173,11 +173,11 @@ int lxcContainerHasReboot(void)
         virReportSystemError(errno, "%s",
                              _("Unable to clone to check reboot support"));
         return -1;
-    } else if (virProcessWait(cpid, &status) < 0) {
+    } else if (virProcessWait(cpid, &status, false) < 0) {
         return -1;
     }
 
-    if (WEXITSTATUS(status) != 1) {
+    if (status != 1) {
         VIR_DEBUG("Containerized reboot support is missing "
                   "(kernel probably too old < 3.4)");
         return 0;
@@ -2075,7 +2075,7 @@ int lxcContainerAvailable(int features)
         VIR_DEBUG("clone call returned %s, container support is not enabled",
                   virStrerror(errno, ebuf, sizeof(ebuf)));
         return -1;
-    } else if (virProcessWait(cpid, NULL) < 0) {
+    } else if (virProcessWait(cpid, NULL, false) < 0) {
         return -1;
     }
 
diff --git a/src/util/vircommand.c b/src/util/vircommand.c
index b9e5f3748a..a4397b4c90 100644
--- a/src/util/vircommand.c
+++ b/src/util/vircommand.c
@@ -2372,7 +2372,7 @@ virCommandWait(virCommandPtr cmd, int *exitstatus)
      * message is not as detailed as what we can provide.  So, we
      * guarantee that virProcessWait only fails due to failure to wait,
      * and repeat the exitstatus check code ourselves.  */
-    ret = virProcessWait(cmd->pid, exitstatus ? exitstatus : &status);
+    ret = virProcessWait(cmd->pid, exitstatus ? exitstatus : &status, true);
     if (cmd->flags & VIR_EXEC_ASYNC_IO) {
         cmd->flags &= ~VIR_EXEC_ASYNC_IO;
         virThreadJoin(cmd->asyncioThread);
diff --git a/src/util/virfile.c b/src/util/virfile.c
index 96f078dfd3..6fb7d6fcb6 100644
--- a/src/util/virfile.c
+++ b/src/util/virfile.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * virfile.c: safer file handling
  *
- * Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Red Hat, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2010-2014 Red Hat, Inc.
  * Copyright (C) 2010 IBM Corporation
  * Copyright (C) 2010 Stefan Berger
  * Copyright (C) 2010 Eric Blake
@@ -1739,19 +1739,13 @@ virFileAccessibleAs(const char *path, int mode,
 
     if (pid) { /* parent */
         VIR_FREE(groups);
-        if (virProcessWait(pid, &status) < 0) {
-            /* virProcessWait() already
-             * reported error */
-            return -1;
-        }
-
-        if (!WIFEXITED(status)) {
-            errno = EINTR;
+        if (virProcessWait(pid, &status, false) < 0) {
+            /* virProcessWait() already reported error */
             return -1;
         }
 
         if (status) {
-            errno = WEXITSTATUS(status);
+            errno = status;
             return -1;
         }
 
diff --git a/src/util/virprocess.c b/src/util/virprocess.c
index bd406db306..72e995026d 100644
--- a/src/util/virprocess.c
+++ b/src/util/virprocess.c
@@ -155,15 +155,21 @@ virProcessAbort(pid_t pid)
  * virProcessWait:
  * @pid: child to wait on
  * @exitstatus: optional status collection
+ * @raw: whether to pass non-normal status back to caller
  *
- * Wait for a child process to complete.
- * Return -1 on any error waiting for
- * completion. Returns 0 if the command
- * finished with the exit status set.  If @exitstatus is NULL, then the
- * child must exit with status 0 for this to succeed.
+ * Wait for a child process to complete.  If @exitstatus is NULL, then the
+ * child must exit normally with status 0.  Otherwise, if @raw is false,
+ * the child must exit normally, and @exitstatus will contain the final
+ * exit status (no need for the caller to use WEXITSTATUS()).  If @raw is
+ * true, then the result of wait() is returned in @exitstatus, and the
+ * caller must use WIFEXITED() and friends to decipher the child's status.
+ *
+ * Returns 0 on a successful wait.  Returns -1 on any error waiting for
+ * completion, or if the command completed with a status that cannot be
+ * reflected via the choice of @exitstatus and @raw.
  */
 int
-virProcessWait(pid_t pid, int *exitstatus)
+virProcessWait(pid_t pid, int *exitstatus, bool raw)
 {
     int ret;
     int status;
@@ -185,19 +191,27 @@ virProcessWait(pid_t pid, int *exitstatus)
     }
 
     if (exitstatus == NULL) {
-        if (status != 0) {
-            char *st = virProcessTranslateStatus(status);
-            virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
-                           _("Child process (%lld) unexpected %s"),
-                           (long long) pid, NULLSTR(st));
-            VIR_FREE(st);
-            return -1;
-        }
-    } else {
+        if (status != 0)
+            goto error;
+    } else if (raw) {
         *exitstatus = status;
+    } else if (WIFEXITED(status)) {
+        *exitstatus = WEXITSTATUS(status);
+    } else {
+        goto error;
     }
 
     return 0;
+
+error:
+    {
+        char *st = virProcessTranslateStatus(status);
+        virReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
+                       _("Child process (%lld) unexpected %s"),
+                       (long long) pid, NULLSTR(st));
+        VIR_FREE(st);
+    }
+    return -1;
 }
 
 
@@ -965,7 +979,7 @@ virProcessRunInMountNamespace(pid_t pid,
 
         VIR_FORCE_CLOSE(errfd[1]);
         ignore_value(virFileReadHeaderFD(errfd[0], 1024, &buf));
-        ret = virProcessWait(child, &status);
+        ret = virProcessWait(child, &status, false);
         if (!ret)
             ret = status == EXIT_CANCELED ? -1 : status;
         VIR_FREE(buf);
diff --git a/src/util/virprocess.h b/src/util/virprocess.h
index abe3635bc9..bcaede58a9 100644
--- a/src/util/virprocess.h
+++ b/src/util/virprocess.h
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ virProcessAbort(pid_t pid);
 void virProcessExitWithStatus(int status) ATTRIBUTE_NORETURN;
 
 int
-virProcessWait(pid_t pid, int *exitstatus)
+virProcessWait(pid_t pid, int *exitstatus, bool raw)
     ATTRIBUTE_RETURN_CHECK;
 
 int virProcessKill(pid_t pid, int sig);
diff --git a/tests/commandtest.c b/tests/commandtest.c
index fcda5e6140..c0391a5e1e 100644
--- a/tests/commandtest.c
+++ b/tests/commandtest.c
@@ -958,13 +958,13 @@ test23(const void *unused ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED)
             _exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
         if (pid == 0)
             _exit(42);
-        if (virProcessWait(pid, &status) < 0)
+        if (virProcessWait(pid, &status, true) < 0)
             _exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
         virProcessExitWithStatus(status);
         _exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
     }
 
-    if (virProcessWait(pid, &status) < 0)
+    if (virProcessWait(pid, &status, true) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
     if (!WIFEXITED(status) || WEXITSTATUS(status) != 42) {
         printf("Unexpected status %d\n", status);
@@ -982,13 +982,13 @@ test23(const void *unused ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED)
             raise(SIGKILL);
             _exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
         }
-        if (virProcessWait(pid, &status) < 0)
+        if (virProcessWait(pid, &status, true) < 0)
             _exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
         virProcessExitWithStatus(status);
         _exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
     }
 
-    if (virProcessWait(pid, &status) < 0)
+    if (virProcessWait(pid, &status, true) < 0)
         goto cleanup;
     if (!WIFSIGNALED(status) || WTERMSIG(status) != SIGKILL) {
         printf("Unexpected status %d\n", status);
diff --git a/tests/testutils.c b/tests/testutils.c
index 97d5b50cdc..ede623924e 100644
--- a/tests/testutils.c
+++ b/tests/testutils.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * testutils.c: basic test utils
  *
- * Copyright (C) 2005-2013 Red Hat, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2005-2014 Red Hat, Inc.
  *
  * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
@@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ virtTestCaptureProgramOutput(const char *const argv[], char **buf, int maxlen)
         VIR_FORCE_CLOSE(pipefd[1]);
         len = virFileReadLimFD(pipefd[0], maxlen, buf);
         VIR_FORCE_CLOSE(pipefd[0]);
-        if (virProcessWait(pid, NULL) < 0)
+        if (virProcessWait(pid, NULL, false) < 0)
             return -1;
 
         return len;
diff --git a/tools/virsh-domain.c b/tools/virsh-domain.c
index 6df18a33ea..520c0eda5c 100644
--- a/tools/virsh-domain.c
+++ b/tools/virsh-domain.c
@@ -8206,7 +8206,7 @@ cmdLxcEnterNamespace(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmd *cmd)
             execv(cmdargv[0], cmdargv);
             _exit(255);
         } else {
-            if (virProcessWait(pid, NULL) < 0)
+            if (virProcessWait(pid, NULL, false) < 0)
                 _exit(255);
         }
         _exit(0);
@@ -8214,7 +8214,7 @@ cmdLxcEnterNamespace(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmd *cmd)
         for (i = 0; i < nfdlist; i++)
             VIR_FORCE_CLOSE(fdlist[i]);
         VIR_FREE(fdlist);
-        if (virProcessWait(pid, NULL) < 0)
+        if (virProcessWait(pid, NULL, false) < 0)
             goto cleanup;
     }
 
diff --git a/tools/virt-login-shell.c b/tools/virt-login-shell.c
index 5b85d15383..819cc5c752 100644
--- a/tools/virt-login-shell.c
+++ b/tools/virt-login-shell.c
@@ -369,9 +369,9 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
                 return EXIT_FAILURE;
             }
         }
-        return virProcessWait(ccpid, &status2);
+        return virProcessWait(ccpid, &status2, true);
     }
-    ret = virProcessWait(cpid, &status);
+    ret = virProcessWait(cpid, &status, true);
 
 cleanup:
     virConfFree(conf);