diff --git a/nix/vm-tests/hive-squid.nix b/nix/vm-tests/hive-squid.nix
index 50fc3d91..382fb971 100644
--- a/nix/vm-tests/hive-squid.nix
+++ b/nix/vm-tests/hive-squid.nix
@@ -195,12 +195,12 @@ pkgs.testers.runNixOSTest {
         )
 
     with subtest("squid's access log reaches the journal under squid.service"):
-        log = proxy.succeed("journalctl -u squid.service -o cat")
-        assert re.search(r"192\.168\.1\.3 TCP_TUNNEL/200 .* CONNECT forge\.t\.local:443", log), log
-        assert re.search(r"192\.168\.1\.3 TCP_DENIED/403 .* CONNECT deny-canary\.invalid:443", log), log
-        assert re.search(r"192\.168\.1\.3 TCP_DENIED/403 .* CONNECT loop\.t\.local:443", log), log
+        journal = proxy.succeed("journalctl -u squid.service -o cat")
+        assert re.search(r"192\.168\.1\.3 TCP_TUNNEL/200 .* CONNECT forge\.t\.local:443", journal), journal
+        assert re.search(r"192\.168\.1\.3 TCP_DENIED/403 .* CONNECT deny-canary\.invalid:443", journal), journal
+        assert re.search(r"192\.168\.1\.3 TCP_DENIED/403 .* CONNECT loop\.t\.local:443", journal), journal
         # Exporter scrapes are cachemgr requests and stay out of the log.
-        assert "squid-internal-mgr" not in log, log
+        assert "squid-internal-mgr" not in journal, journal
 
     with subtest("the exporter serves squid's counters on loopback"):
         metrics = proxy.succeed("curl -sf http://127.0.0.1:9301/metrics")