diff --git a/cli/main.go b/cli/main.go
index e5b7f61e25..99a4a890eb 100644
--- a/cli/main.go
+++ b/cli/main.go
@@ -187,6 +187,16 @@ func setupSignalHandler() {
 	}()
 }
 
+// setExternalLoggers registers the specified logger with the external
+// packages which accept a logger to handle their own logging.
+func setExternalLoggers(logger *logrus.Entry) {
+	// Set virtcontainers logger.
+	vci.SetLogger(logger)
+
+	// Set the OCI package logger.
+	oci.SetLogger(logger)
+}
+
 // beforeSubcommands is the function to perform preliminary checks
 // before command-line parsing occurs.
 func beforeSubcommands(context *cli.Context) error {
@@ -225,11 +235,7 @@ func beforeSubcommands(context *cli.Context) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("unknown log-format %q", context.GlobalString("log-format"))
 	}
 
-	// Set virtcontainers logger.
-	vci.SetLogger(kataLog)
-
-	// Set the OCI package logger.
-	oci.SetLogger(kataLog)
+	setExternalLoggers(kataLog)
 
 	ignoreLogging := false