diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index bc2012c57d..3a151bbe9a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -68,3 +68,4 @@ tests/tests_*
 tests/*.log
 tests/*.trs
 test-suite.log
+tags
diff --git a/src/libcrun/container.c b/src/libcrun/container.c
index a918628ab8..6fe8a65e2c 100644
--- a/src/libcrun/container.c
+++ b/src/libcrun/container.c
@@ -1206,6 +1206,13 @@ container_init_setup (void *args, pid_t own_pid, char *notify_socket, int sync_s
         }
     }
 
+  // set primary process to 1 explicitly if nothing is configured and LISTEN_FD is not set
+  if (getenv ("LISTEN_PID") == NULL && entrypoint_args->context->preserve_fds == 0)
+    {
+      setenv ("LISTEN_PID", "1", 1);
+      libcrun_warning ("setting LISTEN_PID=1 since no previous configuration was found");
+    }
+
   if (def->process && def->process->cwd)
     if (UNLIKELY (chdir (def->process->cwd) < 0))
       return crun_make_error (err, errno, "chdir");