diff --git a/cmd/nginx/main.go b/cmd/nginx/main.go
index 2e5e677c6..d1f0546f0 100644
--- a/cmd/nginx/main.go
+++ b/cmd/nginx/main.go
@@ -135,7 +135,9 @@ func main() {
 		setupSSLProxy(conf.ListenPorts.HTTPS, conf.ListenPorts.SSLProxy, ngx)
 	}
 
-	go handleSigterm(ngx)
+	go handleSigterm(ngx, func(code int) {
+		os.Exit(code)
+	})
 
 	mux := http.NewServeMux()
 	go registerHandlers(conf.EnableProfiling, conf.ListenPorts.Health, ngx, mux)
@@ -143,7 +145,9 @@ func main() {
 	ngx.Start()
 }
 
-func handleSigterm(ngx *controller.NGINXController) {
+type exiter func(code int)
+
+func handleSigterm(ngx *controller.NGINXController, exit exiter) {
 	signalChan := make(chan os.Signal, 1)
 	signal.Notify(signalChan, syscall.SIGTERM)
 	<-signalChan
@@ -159,7 +163,7 @@ func handleSigterm(ngx *controller.NGINXController) {
 	time.Sleep(10 * time.Second)
 
 	glog.Infof("Exiting with %v", exitCode)
-	os.Exit(exitCode)
+	exit(exitCode)
 }
 
 func setupSSLProxy(sslPort, proxyPort int, n *controller.NGINXController) {
diff --git a/cmd/nginx/main_test.go b/cmd/nginx/main_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7933b5df0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/nginx/main_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"syscall"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"k8s.io/ingress-nginx/internal/ingress/controller"
+)
+
+func TestCreateApiserverClient(t *testing.T) {
+	home := os.Getenv("HOME")
+	kubeConfigFile := fmt.Sprintf("%v/.kube/config", home)
+
+	cli, err := createApiserverClient("", kubeConfigFile)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating api server client: %v", err)
+	}
+	if cli == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("expected a kubernetes client but none returned")
+	}
+
+	_, err = createApiserverClient("", "")
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatalf("expected an error creating api server client without an api server URL or kubeconfig file")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestHandleSigterm(t *testing.T) {
+	home := os.Getenv("HOME")
+	kubeConfigFile := fmt.Sprintf("%v/.kube/config", home)
+
+	cli, err := createApiserverClient("", kubeConfigFile)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected error creating api server client: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	resetForTesting(func() { t.Fatal("bad parse") })
+
+	os.Setenv("POD_NAME", "test")
+	os.Setenv("POD_NAMESPACE", "test")
+	defer os.Setenv("POD_NAME", "")
+	defer os.Setenv("POD_NAMESPACE", "")
+
+	oldArgs := os.Args
+	defer func() { os.Args = oldArgs }()
+	os.Args = []string{"cmd", "--default-backend-service", "ingress-nginx/default-backend-http", "--http-port", "0", "--https-port", "0"}
+
+	_, conf, err := parseFlags()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("unexpected error creating NGINX controller: %v", err)
+	}
+	conf.Client = cli
+
+	ngx := controller.NewNGINXController(conf)
+
+	go handleSigterm(ngx, func(code int) {
+		if code != 1 {
+			t.Errorf("expected exit code 1 but %v received", code)
+		}
+
+		return
+	})
+
+	time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
+
+	t.Logf("sending SIGTERM to process PID %v", syscall.Getpid())
+	err = syscall.Kill(syscall.Getpid(), syscall.SIGTERM)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("unexpected error sending SIGTERM signal")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestRegisterHandlers(t *testing.T) {
+}