diff --git a/create_diracosrc.sh b/create_diracosrc.sh
index 5e2cd9f..73ee1b5 100644
--- a/create_diracosrc.sh
+++ b/create_diracosrc.sh
@@ -12,8 +12,11 @@
     echo ''
     echo '# Initialise the conda environment in a way which ignores other conda installations'
     echo 'unset CONDA_SHLVL'
+    echo '# Silence xtrace around the micromamba hook eval (it expands to hundreds of lines)'
+    echo '__diracos_xtrace=0; case $- in *x*) __diracos_xtrace=1; set +x;; esac'
     echo 'eval "$(PS1="${PS1:-}" ${DIRACOS}/bin/micromamba shell hook -s bash)"'
     echo 'micromamba activate "$DIRACOS"'
+    echo '[ "$__diracos_xtrace" = 1 ] && set -x; unset __diracos_xtrace'
     echo ''
     echo '# Silence python warnings'
     echo 'export PYTHONWARNINGS=ignore'
@@ -39,7 +42,11 @@
     echo '  if [ -z "${resolvedDir}" ]; then'
     echo '    return 1'
     echo '  fi'
-    echo '  if [ -n "$(ls -A "${resolvedDir}" 2>/dev/null)" ]; then'
+    echo '  # Silence xtrace so a traced "ls -A" on e.g. a CA cert dir does not dump thousands of lines'
+    echo '  local _xt=0; case $- in *x*) _xt=1; set +x;; esac'
+    echo '  local _contents; _contents=$(ls -A "${resolvedDir}" 2>/dev/null)'
+    echo '  [ "$_xt" = 1 ] && set -x'
+    echo '  if [ -n "${_contents}" ]; then'
     echo '    return 0'
     echo '  fi'
     echo '  return 1'