diff --git a/utils/watchcontainerrun.sh b/utils/watchcontainerrun.sh
index 41bc0ffdd..67e8ab3a5 100755
--- a/utils/watchcontainerrun.sh
+++ b/utils/watchcontainerrun.sh
@@ -7,8 +7,15 @@ FILENAME="$2"
 STARTSCRIPT="$3"
 CLEANUPSCRIPT="$4"
 
-while ! grep -q 'CONTAINER_ID=' "$FILENAME" ; do
+TRIES=1
+
+while ! grep -q 'CONTAINER_ID=' "$FILENAME" > /dev/null 2&>/dev/null ; do
   sleep 1
+  TRIES=$((1+$TRIES))
+  if [ "$TRIES" -ge 20 ] ; then
+    echo "$0: Containerfile $FILENAME did not show up after 20 seconds, giving up now!" >&2
+    exit
+  fi
 done
 
 sleep 1 # safety, we do not want to have half written container ids