diff --git a/utils/debug.h b/utils/debug.h
index 5d0d24bb70e57aeba17db110cda6571bc5699565..2eed3df89e18bedf560159d6bd8777b9ca62aa1c 100644
--- a/utils/debug.h
+++ b/utils/debug.h
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ enum
     DEBUG_RELOCS     = 0x1 << 6,
     DEBUG_ELF        = 0x1 << 7,
     DEBUG_DLFUNC     = 0x1 << 8,
+    DEBUG_TOOL       = 0x1 << 9,
     DEBUG_ALL        = 0xffff,
 };
 
diff --git a/utils/utils.c b/utils/utils.c
index 38ec3fad629eb965e7e6423b9acd3705506e7c4b..a1ea7e6162ab1f8d46592dc472626a799369a6aa 100644
--- a/utils/utils.c
+++ b/utils/utils.c
@@ -266,6 +266,7 @@ void set_debug_flags (const char *control)
     if( strstr( control, "reloc"    ) ) debug_flags |= DEBUG_RELOCS;
     if( strstr( control, "elf"      ) ) debug_flags |= DEBUG_ELF;
     if( strstr( control, "dlfunc"   ) ) debug_flags |= DEBUG_DLFUNC;
+    if( strstr( control, "tool"     ) ) debug_flags |= DEBUG_TOOL;
     if( strstr( control, "all"      ) ) debug_flags |= DEBUG_ALL;
 
     if( !debug_flags )
@@ -280,7 +281,8 @@ void set_debug_flags (const char *control)
             "  wrappers: %c # function wrappers installed in the capsule"  "\n"
             "  reloc   : %c # patching capsule symbols into external DSOs" "\n"
             "  dlfunc  : %c # special handling of dlopen/dlsym calls"      "\n"
-            "  elf     : %c # detailed ELF introspection logging"          "\n",
+            "  elf     : %c # detailed ELF introspection logging"          "\n"
+            "  tool    : %c # command-line tools"                          "\n",
             (debug_flags & DEBUG_PATH    ) ? 'Y' : 'n' ,
             (debug_flags & DEBUG_SEARCH  ) ? 'Y' : 'n' ,
             (debug_flags & DEBUG_LDCACHE ) ? 'Y' : 'n' ,
@@ -289,7 +291,8 @@ void set_debug_flags (const char *control)
             (debug_flags & DEBUG_WRAPPERS) ? 'Y' : 'n' ,
             (debug_flags & DEBUG_RELOCS  ) ? 'Y' : 'n' ,
             (debug_flags & DEBUG_DLFUNC  ) ? 'Y' : 'n' ,
-            (debug_flags & DEBUG_ELF     ) ? 'Y' : 'n' );
+            (debug_flags & DEBUG_ELF     ) ? 'Y' : 'n' ,
+            (debug_flags & DEBUG_TOOL    ) ? 'Y' : 'n' );
 }
 
 // soname: bare libfoo.so.X style name