diff --git a/glanceclient/shell.py b/glanceclient/shell.py
index 86e6107..d8998f0 100755
--- a/glanceclient/shell.py
+++ b/glanceclient/shell.py
@@ -581,6 +581,12 @@ class OpenStackImagesShell(object):
         if not args.os_password and options.os_password:
             args.os_password = options.os_password
 
+        if args.debug:
+            # Set up the root logger to debug so that the submodules can
+            # print debug messages
+            logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
+            # for iso8601 < 0.1.11
+            logging.getLogger('iso8601').setLevel(logging.WARNING)
         LOG = logging.getLogger('glanceclient')
         LOG.addHandler(logging.StreamHandler())
         LOG.setLevel(logging.DEBUG if args.debug else logging.INFO)
diff --git a/glanceclient/tests/unit/test_shell.py b/glanceclient/tests/unit/test_shell.py
index e0f9ff7..3a63639 100644
--- a/glanceclient/tests/unit/test_shell.py
+++ b/glanceclient/tests/unit/test_shell.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ try:
 except ImportError:
     from ordereddict import OrderedDict
 import hashlib
+import logging
 import os
 import sys
 import uuid
@@ -541,6 +542,20 @@ class ShellTest(testutils.TestCase):
         self.assertIn('Command-line interface to the OpenStack Images API',
                       sys.stdout.getvalue())
 
+    @mock.patch('glanceclient.v2.client.Client')
+    @mock.patch('glanceclient.v1.shell.do_image_list')
+    @mock.patch('glanceclient.shell.logging.basicConfig')
+    def test_setup_debug(self, conf, func, v2_client):
+        cli2 = mock.MagicMock()
+        v2_client.return_value = cli2
+        cli2.http_client.get.return_value = (None, {'versions': []})
+        args = '--debug image-list'
+        glance_shell = openstack_shell.OpenStackImagesShell()
+        glance_shell.main(args.split())
+        glance_logger = logging.getLogger('glanceclient')
+        self.assertEqual(glance_logger.getEffectiveLevel(), logging.DEBUG)
+        conf.assert_called_with(level=logging.DEBUG)
+
 
 class ShellTestWithKeystoneV3Auth(ShellTest):
     # auth environment to use