diff --git a/ci/go-no-os-exit.sh b/ci/go-no-os-exit.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..5f0f98436a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/go-no-os-exit.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Copyright (c) 2018 Intel Corporation
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+#
+# Check there are no os.Exit() calls creeping into the code
+# We don't use that exit path in the Kata codebase.
+
+# Allow the path to check to be over-ridden.
+# Default to the current directory.
+go_packages=${1:-.}
+
+echo "Checking for no os.Exit() calls for package [${go_packages}]"
+
+candidates=`go list -f '{{.Dir}}/*.go' $go_packages`
+for f in $candidates; do
+	filename=`basename $f`
+	# skip all go test files
+	[[ $filename == *_test.go ]] && continue
+	# skip exit.go where, the only file we should call os.Exit() from.
+	[[ $filename == "exit.go" ]] && continue
+	files="$f $files"
+done
+
+[ -z "$files" ] && echo "No files to check, skipping" && exit 0
+
+if egrep -n '\<os\.Exit\>' $files; then
+	echo "Direct calls to os.Exit() are forbidden, please use exit() so atexit() works"
+	exit 1
+fi
diff --git a/src/runtime/Makefile b/src/runtime/Makefile
index f4c2bf661b..8cf73abeb9 100644
--- a/src/runtime/Makefile
+++ b/src/runtime/Makefile
@@ -582,7 +582,6 @@ $(MONITOR_OUTPUT): $(SOURCES) $(GENERATED_FILES) $(MAKEFILE_LIST)
 .PHONY: \
 	check \
 	check-go-static \
-	check-go-test \
 	coverage \
 	default \
 	install \
@@ -688,9 +687,9 @@ go-test: $(GENERATED_FILES)
 	go test -v -mod=vendor ./...
 
 check-go-static:
-	$(QUIET_CHECK).ci/static-checks.sh
-	$(QUIET_CHECK).ci/go-no-os-exit.sh ./cli
-	$(QUIET_CHECK).ci/go-no-os-exit.sh ./virtcontainers
+	$(QUIET_CHECK)../../ci/static-checks.sh
+	$(QUIET_CHECK)../../ci/go-no-os-exit.sh ./cli
+	$(QUIET_CHECK)../../ci/go-no-os-exit.sh ./virtcontainers
 
 coverage:
 	go test -v -mod=vendor -covermode=atomic -coverprofile=coverage.txt ./...