diff --git a/src/debug.c b/src/debug.c
index 6ce8b3bdc..26c1a91fc 100644
--- a/src/debug.c
+++ b/src/debug.c
@@ -1808,7 +1808,7 @@ void bugReportEnd(int killViaSignal, int sig) {
 );
 
     /* free(messages); Don't call free() with possibly corrupted memory. */
-    if (server.daemonize && server.supervised == 0) unlink(server.pidfile);
+    if (server.daemonize && server.supervised == 0 && server.pidfile) unlink(server.pidfile);
 
     if (!killViaSignal) {
         if (server.use_exit_on_panic)
diff --git a/src/server.c b/src/server.c
index 29c810928..0be8fb003 100644
--- a/src/server.c
+++ b/src/server.c
@@ -5200,6 +5200,10 @@ void closeClildUnusedResourceAfterFork() {
     closeListeningSockets(0);
     if (server.cluster_enabled && server.cluster_config_file_lock_fd != -1)
         close(server.cluster_config_file_lock_fd);  /* don't care if this fails */
+
+    /* Clear server.pidfile, this is the parent pidfile which should not
+     * be touched (or deleted) by the child (on exit / crash) */
+    server.pidfile = NULL;
 }
 
 /* purpose is one of CHILD_TYPE_ types */