diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b176e4096cf..da10bc4d7b1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 #### Bugs
 
 #### Improvements
+* Fix #4254: adding debug logging for exec stream messages
 * Fix #4041: adding Quantity.getNumericalAmount with an explanation about bytes and cores.
 * Fix #4241: added more context to informer logs with the endpoint path
 
diff --git a/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/ExecWebSocketListener.java b/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/ExecWebSocketListener.java
index 7e0d3bdd856..fb127ac8c7f 100644
--- a/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/ExecWebSocketListener.java
+++ b/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/ExecWebSocketListener.java
@@ -100,17 +100,29 @@ public interface MessageHandler {
   private final class ListenerStream {
     private MessageHandler handler;
     private ExecWatchInputStream inputStream;
+    private String name;
+
+    public ListenerStream(String name) {
+      this.name = name;
+    }
 
     private void handle(ByteBuffer byteString, WebSocket webSocket) throws IOException {
       if (handler != null) {
         handler.handle(byteString);
       } else {
+        if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()) {
+          String message = ExecWebSocketListener.toString(byteString);
+          if (message.length() > 200) {
+            message = message.substring(0, 197) + "...";
+          }
+          LOGGER.debug("exec message received on channel {}: {}", name, message);
+        }
         webSocket.request();
       }
     }
   }
 
-  private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ExecWebSocketListener.class);
+  static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ExecWebSocketListener.class);
   private static final String HEIGHT = "Height";
   private static final String WIDTH = "Width";
 
@@ -152,14 +164,14 @@ public ExecWebSocketListener(PodOperationContext context, Executor executor) {
     }
 
     this.terminateOnError = context.isTerminateOnError();
-    this.out = createStream(context.getOutput());
-    this.error = createStream(context.getError());
-    this.errorChannel = createStream(context.getErrorChannel());
+    this.out = createStream("stdOut", context.getOutput());
+    this.error = createStream("stdErr", context.getError());
+    this.errorChannel = createStream("errorChannel", context.getErrorChannel());
     this.serialExecutor = new SerialExecutor(executor);
   }
 
-  private ListenerStream createStream(StreamContext streamContext) {
-    ListenerStream stream = new ListenerStream();
+  private ListenerStream createStream(String name, StreamContext streamContext) {
+    ListenerStream stream = new ListenerStream(name);
     if (streamContext == null) {
       return stream;
     }
diff --git a/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/PodOperationContext.java b/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/PodOperationContext.java
index 7ec951b78cf..bc4ccfbf08c 100644
--- a/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/PodOperationContext.java
+++ b/kubernetes-client/src/main/java/io/fabric8/kubernetes/client/dsl/internal/PodOperationContext.java
@@ -164,10 +164,11 @@ public void addQueryParameters(URLBuilder httpUrlBuilder) {
     if (in != null || redirectingIn) {
       httpUrlBuilder.addQueryParameter("stdin", "true");
     }
-    if (output != null) {
+    boolean debug = ExecWebSocketListener.LOGGER.isDebugEnabled();
+    if (output != null || debug) {
       httpUrlBuilder.addQueryParameter("stdout", "true");
     }
-    if (error != null || terminateOnError) {
+    if (error != null || terminateOnError || debug) {
       httpUrlBuilder.addQueryParameter("stderr", "true");
     }
   }
diff --git a/kubernetes-itests/pom.xml b/kubernetes-itests/pom.xml
index 1f02f289a04..a7bb2a45d5d 100644
--- a/kubernetes-itests/pom.xml
+++ b/kubernetes-itests/pom.xml
@@ -58,6 +58,11 @@
       <groupId>org.awaitility</groupId>
       <artifactId>awaitility</artifactId>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
+      <artifactId>slf4j-simple</artifactId>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
   <profiles>