diff --git a/tests/test_utils.py b/tests/test_utils.py
index f112e1a..71fed1a 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -5,8 +5,34 @@ import os
 import unittest
 from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile as ntf
 
+from tldptesttools import *
+
 # -- SUT
-from tldp.utils import makefh, which
+from tldp.utils import makefh, which, getfileset, execute
+
+
+class Test_execute(TestToolsFilesystem):
+
+    def test_execute_returns_zero(self):
+        result = execute(['true'], logdir=self.tempdir)
+        self.assertEqual(0, result)
+
+    def test_execute_returns_nonzero(self):
+        result = execute(['false'], logdir=self.tempdir)
+        self.assertEqual(1, result)
+
+    def test_execute_exception_when_logdir_none(self):
+        with self.assertRaises(Exception) as ecm:
+            execute(['true'], logdir=None)
+        e = ecm.exception
+        self.assertTrue('Missing' in e.message)
+
+    def test_execute_exception_when_logdir_enoent(self):
+        logdir = os.path.join(self.tempdir, 'nonexistent-directory')
+        with self.assertRaises(IOError) as ecm:
+            execute(['true'], logdir=logdir)
+        e = ecm.exception
+        self.assertTrue('nonexistent' in e.filename)
 
 
 class Test_which(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -33,6 +59,14 @@ class Test_which(unittest.TestCase):
         os.unlink(f.name)
 
 
+class Test_getfileset(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def test_getfileset(self):
+        here = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+        me = os.path.join('.', os.path.basename(__file__))
+        self.assertTrue(me in getfileset(here))
+
+
 class Test_makefh(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_makefh(self):
diff --git a/tldp/utils.py b/tldp/utils.py
index 6c8e33e..0b5b3fb 100644
--- a/tldp/utils.py
+++ b/tldp/utils.py
@@ -5,13 +5,14 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import, division, print_function
 import os
 import io
 import sys
+import errno
 import subprocess
 from tempfile import mkstemp
 import logging
 
 
 def getLogger(**opts):
-    level = opts.get('level', logging.DEBUG)
+    level = opts.get('level', logging.INFO)
     logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stderr, level=level)
     logger = logging.getLogger()
     return logger
@@ -23,9 +24,11 @@ def execute(cmd, stdin=None, stdout=None, stderr=None,
             logdir=None, env=os.environ):
     prefix = os.path.basename(cmd[0]) + '.' + str(os.getpid()) + '-'
 
-    if logdir is None:
-        raise Exception("Missing, required parameter: logdir.")
-    assert os.path.isdir(logdir)
+    if logdir is None: 
+        raise Exception("Missing required parameter: logdir.")
+
+    if not os.path.isdir(logdir):
+        raise IOError(errno.ENOENT, os.strerror(errno.ENOENT), logdir)
 
     # -- not remapping STDIN, because that doesn't make sense here
     if stdout is None:
@@ -76,5 +79,16 @@ def makefh(thing):
                         (type(thing), thing,))
     return f
 
+
+def getfileset(dirname):
+    q = set()
+    ocwd = os.getcwd()
+    os.chdir(dirname)
+    for root, dirs, files in os.walk('.'):
+        q.update([os.path.join(root, x) for x in files])
+    os.chdir(ocwd)
+    return q
+
+
 #
 # -- end of file