diff --git a/prog/weaveexec/symlink b/prog/weaveexec/symlink
index 56078149..2c06e901 100755
--- a/prog/weaveexec/symlink
+++ b/prog/weaveexec/symlink
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 set -e
 
-[ -z "$DEBUG" ] || set -x
+[ -z "$WEAVE_DEBUG" ] || set -x
 
 target="$1"
 user="$(stat -c '%u:%g' "$target")"
diff --git a/proxy/proxy.go b/proxy/proxy.go
index b23aebd1..d267a610 100644
--- a/proxy/proxy.go
+++ b/proxy/proxy.go
@@ -575,8 +575,8 @@ func (proxy *Proxy) symlink(unixAddrs []string) (err error) {
 		"PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin",
 	}
 
-	if val := os.Getenv("DEBUG"); val != "" {
-		env = append(env, fmt.Sprintf("%s=%s", "DEBUG", val))
+	if val := os.Getenv("WEAVE_DEBUG"); val != "" {
+		env = append(env, fmt.Sprintf("%s=%s", "WEAVE_DEBUG", val))
 	}
 
 	container, err = proxy.client.CreateContainer(docker.CreateContainerOptions{