diff --git a/src/shared/generator.c b/src/shared/generator.c
index ca66673d84..12170d3642 100644
--- a/src/shared/generator.c
+++ b/src/shared/generator.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include "macro.h"
 #include "mkdir-label.h"
 #include "path-util.h"
+#include "process-util.h"
 #include "special.h"
 #include "specifier.h"
 #include "string-util.h"
@@ -737,11 +738,15 @@ int generator_write_veritysetup_service_section(
 }
 
 void log_setup_generator(void) {
-        /* Disable talking to syslog/journal (i.e. the two IPC-based loggers) if we run in system context. */
-        if (cg_pid_get_owner_uid(0, NULL) == -ENXIO /* not running in a per-user slice */)
-                log_set_prohibit_ipc(true);
+        if (invoked_by_systemd()) {
+                /* Disable talking to syslog/journal (i.e. the two IPC-based loggers) if we run in system context. */
+                if (cg_pid_get_owner_uid(0, NULL) == -ENXIO /* not running in a per-user slice */)
+                        log_set_prohibit_ipc(true);
+
+                /* This effectively means: journal for per-user generators, kmsg otherwise */
+                log_set_target(LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL_OR_KMSG);
+        }
 
-        log_set_target(LOG_TARGET_JOURNAL_OR_KMSG); /* This effectively means: journal for per-user generators, kmsg otherwise */
         log_parse_environment();
         (void) log_open();
 }