diff --git a/src/libutil/util.cc b/src/libutil/util.cc
index a00a03978..1f800f3f4 100644
--- a/src/libutil/util.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/util.cc
@@ -1717,12 +1717,12 @@ void restoreMountNamespace()
     try {
         if (fdSavedMountNamespace && setns(fdSavedMountNamespace.get(), CLONE_NEWNS) == -1)
             throw SysError("restoring parent mount namespace");
+        if (fdSavedCwd && fchdir(fdSavedCwd.get()) == -1) {
+            throw SysError("restoring cwd");
+        }
     } catch (Error & e) {
         debug(e.msg());
     }
-    if (fdSavedCwd && fchdir(fdSavedCwd.get()) == -1) {
-        throw SysError("restoring cwd");
-    }
 #endif
 }