diff --git a/test/integration/hotrestart_test.sh b/test/integration/hotrestart_test.sh
index 3d4a8e30a6e2c..aa35b1bfc9f8e 100755
--- a/test/integration/hotrestart_test.sh
+++ b/test/integration/hotrestart_test.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,72 @@
 
 set -e
 
+# The following functions are borrowed from PageSpeed's system test
+# infrastructure, where are part of a bash system-test helper library.
+# I'm putting them here for this one test to help me debug it, with
+# the thinking that if there's traction for this infrastructure I'll
+# factor it out into a helpers class for Envoy.  Original source link:
+#
+# https://github.com/apache/incubator-pagespeed-mod/blob/c7cc4f22c79ada8077be2a16afc376dc8f8bd2da/pagespeed/automatic/system_test_helpers.sh#L383
+
+CURRENT_TEST="NONE"
+function start_test() {
+  CURRENT_TEST="$@"
+  echo "TEST: $CURRENT_TEST"
+}
+
+check() {
+  echo "     check" "$@" ...
+  "$@" || handle_failure
+}
+
+BACKGROUND_PID="?"
+run_in_background_saving_pid() {
+  echo "     backgrounding:" "$@" ...
+  "$@" &
+  BACKGROUND_PID="$!"
+}
+
+# By default, print a message like:
+#   failure at line 374
+#   FAIL
+# and then exit with return value 1.  If we expected this test to fail, log to
+# $EXPECTED_FAILURES and return without exiting.
+#
+# If the shell does not support the 'caller' builtin, skip the line number info.
+#
+# Assumes it's being called from a failure-reporting function and that the
+# actual failure the user is interested in is our caller's caller.  If it
+# weren't for this, fail and handle_failure could be the same.
+handle_failure() {
+  if [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
+    echo FAILed Input: "$1"
+  fi
+
+  # From http://stackoverflow.com/questions/685435/bash-stacktrace
+  # to avoid printing 'handle_failure' we start with 1 to skip get_stack caller
+  local i
+  local stack_size=${#FUNCNAME[@]}
+  for (( i=1; i<$stack_size ; i++ )); do
+    local func="${FUNCNAME[$i]}"
+    [ -z "$func" ] && func=MAIN
+    local line_number="${BASH_LINENO[(( i - 1 ))]}"
+    local src="${BASH_SOURCE[$i]}"
+    [ -z "$src" ] && src=non_file_source
+    echo "${src}:${line_number}: $func"
+  done
+
+  # Note: we print line number after "failed input" so that it doesn't get
+  # knocked out of the terminal buffer.
+  if type caller > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
+    # "caller 1" is our caller's caller.
+    echo "     failure at line $(caller 1 | sed 's/ .*//')" 1>&2
+  fi
+  echo "in '$CURRENT_TEST'"
+  echo FAIL.
+  exit 1
+}
+
 # The heapchecker outputs some data to stderr on every execution.  This gets intermingled
 # with the output from --hot-restart-version, so disable the heap-checker for these runs.
 disableHeapCheck () {
@@ -25,6 +91,7 @@ JSON_TEST_ARRAY=()
 if [[ -z "${ENVOY_IP_TEST_VERSIONS}" ]] || [[ "${ENVOY_IP_TEST_VERSIONS}" == "all" ]] \
   || [[ "${ENVOY_IP_TEST_VERSIONS}" == "v4only" ]]; then
   HOT_RESTART_JSON_V4="${TEST_TMPDIR}"/hot_restart_v4.json
+  echo building ${HOT_RESTART_JSON_V4} ...
   cat "${TEST_RUNDIR}"/test/config/integration/server.json |
     sed -e "s#{{ upstream_. }}#0#g" | \
     sed -e "s#{{ test_rundir }}#$TEST_RUNDIR#" | \
@@ -58,23 +125,23 @@ echo "Hot restart test using --base-id ${BASE_ID}"
 TEST_INDEX=0
 for HOT_RESTART_JSON in "${JSON_TEST_ARRAY[@]}"
 do
-  # Test validation.
   # TODO(jun03): instead of setting the base-id, the validate server should use the nop hot restart
-  "${ENVOY_BIN}" -c "${HOT_RESTART_JSON}" --mode validate --service-cluster cluster \
+  start_test validation
+  check "${ENVOY_BIN}" -c "${HOT_RESTART_JSON}" --mode validate --service-cluster cluster \
       --service-node node --base-id "${BASE_ID}"
 
   # Now start the real server, hot restart it twice, and shut it all down as a basic hot restart
   # sanity test.
-  echo "Starting epoch 0"
+  start_test Starting epoch 0
   ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_0="${TEST_TMPDIR}"/admin.0."${TEST_INDEX}".address
-  "${ENVOY_BIN}" -c "${HOT_RESTART_JSON}" \
+  run_in_background_saving_pid "${ENVOY_BIN}" -c "${HOT_RESTART_JSON}" \
       --restart-epoch 0 --base-id "${BASE_ID}" --service-cluster cluster --service-node node \
-      --admin-address-path "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_0}" &
+      --admin-address-path "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_0}"
 
-  FIRST_SERVER_PID=$!
-  sleep 3
+  FIRST_SERVER_PID=$BACKGROUND_PID
 
-  echo "Updating original config json listener addresses"
+  start_test Updating original config json listener addresses
+  sleep 3
   UPDATED_HOT_RESTART_JSON="${TEST_TMPDIR}"/hot_restart_updated."${TEST_INDEX}".json
   "${TEST_RUNDIR}"/tools/socket_passing "-o" "${HOT_RESTART_JSON}" "-a" "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_0}" \
     "-u" "${UPDATED_HOT_RESTART_JSON}"
@@ -88,45 +155,37 @@ do
 
   disableHeapCheck
 
-  echo "Checking for match of --hot-restart-version and admin /hot_restart_version"
+  start_test Checking for match of --hot-restart-version and admin /hot_restart_version
   ADMIN_ADDRESS_0=$(cat "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_0}")
+  echo fetching hot restart version from http://${ADMIN_ADDRESS_0}/hot_restart_version ...
   ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION=$(curl -sg http://${ADMIN_ADDRESS_0}/hot_restart_version)
   CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION=$("${ENVOY_BIN}" --hot-restart-version --base-id "${BASE_ID}" 2>&1)
-  if [[ "${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" != "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" ]]; then
-      echo "Hot restart version mismatch: ${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION} != " \
-           "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}"
-      exit 2
-  fi
+  check [ "${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" = "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" ]
 
-  echo "Checking max-obj-name-len"
-  CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION=$("${ENVOY_BIN}" --hot-restart-version --max-obj-name-len 1234 --base-id "${BASE_ID}" 2>&1)
-  if [[ "${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" = "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" ]]; then
-      echo "Hot restart version match when it should mismatch: ${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION} == " \
-           "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}"
-      exit 2
-  fi
+  start_test Checking for hot-restart-version mismatch when max-obj-name-len differs
+  CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION=$("${ENVOY_BIN}" --hot-restart-version --base-id "${BASE_ID}" \
+    --max-obj-name-len 1234 2>&1)
+  check [ "${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" != "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" ]
 
-  echo "Checking max-stats"
-  CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION=$("${ENVOY_BIN}" --hot-restart-version --max-stats 12345 --base-id "${BASE_ID}" 2>&1)
-  if [[ "${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" = "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" ]]; then
-      echo "Hot restart version match when it should mismatch: ${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION} == " \
-           "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}"
-      exit 2
-  fi
+  start_test Checking for hot-start-version mismatch when max-stats differs
+  CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION=$("${ENVOY_BIN}" --hot-restart-version --base-id "${BASE_ID}" \
+    --max-stats 12345 2>&1)
+  check [ "${ADMIN_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" != "${CLI_HOT_RESTART_VERSION}" ]
 
   enableHeapCheck
 
-  echo "Starting epoch 1"
+  start_test Starting epoch 1
   ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_1="${TEST_TMPDIR}"/admin.1."${TEST_INDEX}".address
-  "${ENVOY_BIN}" -c "${UPDATED_HOT_RESTART_JSON}" \
+  run_in_background_saving_pid "${ENVOY_BIN}" -c "${UPDATED_HOT_RESTART_JSON}" \
       --restart-epoch 1 --base-id "${BASE_ID}" --service-cluster cluster --service-node node \
-      --admin-address-path "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_1}" &
+      --admin-address-path "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_1}"
+
+  SECOND_SERVER_PID=$BACKGROUND_PID
 
-  SECOND_SERVER_PID=$!
   # Wait for stat flushing
   sleep 7
 
-  echo "Checking that listener addresses have not changed"
+  start_test Checking that listener addresses have not changed
   HOT_RESTART_JSON_1="${TEST_TMPDIR}"/hot_restart.1."${TEST_INDEX}".json
   "${TEST_RUNDIR}"/tools/socket_passing "-o" "${UPDATED_HOT_RESTART_JSON}" "-a" "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_1}" \
     "-u" "${HOT_RESTART_JSON_1}"
@@ -134,15 +193,15 @@ do
   [[ -z "${CONFIG_DIFF}" ]]
 
   ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_2="${TEST_TMPDIR}"/admin.2."${TEST_INDEX}".address
-  echo "Starting epoch 2"
-  "${ENVOY_BIN}" -c "${UPDATED_HOT_RESTART_JSON}" \
-      --restart-epoch 2 --base-id "${BASE_ID}" --service-cluster cluster --service-node node \
-      --admin-address-path "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_2}" &
+  start_test Starting epoch 2
+  run_in_background_saving_pid "${ENVOY_BIN}" -c "${UPDATED_HOT_RESTART_JSON}" \
+      --restart-epoch 2  --base-id "${BASE_ID}" --service-cluster cluster --service-node node \
+      --admin-address-path "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_2}"
 
-  THIRD_SERVER_PID=$!
+  THIRD_SERVER_PID=$BACKGROUND_PID
   sleep 3
 
-  echo "Checking that listener addresses have not changed"
+  start_test Checking that listener addresses have not changed
   HOT_RESTART_JSON_2="${TEST_TMPDIR}"/hot_restart.2."${TEST_INDEX}".json
   "${TEST_RUNDIR}"/tools/socket_passing "-o" "${UPDATED_HOT_RESTART_JSON}" "-a" "${ADMIN_ADDRESS_PATH_2}" \
     "-u" "${HOT_RESTART_JSON_2}"
@@ -150,22 +209,22 @@ do
   [[ -z "${CONFIG_DIFF}" ]]
 
   # First server should already be gone.
-  echo "Waiting for epoch 0"
+  start_test Waiting for epoch 0
   wait ${FIRST_SERVER_PID}
   [[ $? == 0 ]]
 
   #Send SIGUSR1 signal to the second server, this should not kill it
-  echo "Sending SIGUSR1 to the second server"
+  start_test Sending SIGUSR1 to the second server
   kill -SIGUSR1 ${SECOND_SERVER_PID}
   sleep 3
 
   # Now term the last server, and the other one should exit also.
-  echo "Killing and waiting for epoch 2"
+  start_test Killing and waiting for epoch 2
   kill ${THIRD_SERVER_PID}
   wait ${THIRD_SERVER_PID}
   [[ $? == 0 ]]
 
-  echo "Waiting for epoch 1"
+  start_test Waiting for epoch 1
   wait ${SECOND_SERVER_PID}
   [[ $? == 0 ]]
   TEST_INDEX=$((TEST_INDEX+1))
@@ -176,7 +235,7 @@ done
 set +e
 disableHeapCheck
 
-echo "Launching envoy with no parameters. Check the exit value is 1"
+start_test Launching envoy with no parameters. Check the exit value is 1
 ${ENVOY_BIN} --base_id "${BASE_ID}"
 EXIT_CODE=$?
 # The test should fail if the Envoy binary exits with anything other than 1.