diff --git a/share/spack/qa/setup-env-test.sh b/share/spack/qa/setup-env-test.sh
index 7fdc15b8353..03eb23a6faf 100755
--- a/share/spack/qa/setup-env-test.sh
+++ b/share/spack/qa/setup-env-test.sh
@@ -200,3 +200,6 @@ despacktivate
 echo "Correct error exit codes for activate and deactivate"
 fails spack env activate nonexisiting_environment
 fails spack env deactivate
+
+echo "Correct error exit codes for unit-test when it fails"
+fails spack unit-test fail