diff --git a/sched/task/task_execve.c b/sched/task/task_execve.c
index f070ce29513..0971509a33c 100644
--- a/sched/task/task_execve.c
+++ b/sched/task/task_execve.c
@@ -128,7 +128,17 @@ int execve(FAR const char *path, FAR char * const argv[],
   ret = exec(path, argv, envp, symtab, nsymbols);
   if (ret < 0)
     {
-      serr("ERROR: exec failed: %d\n", get_errno());
+      /* No such program (ENOENT) or not a loadable format (ENOEXEC) is an
+       * ordinary result for the caller, for example a shell that runs a
+       * script itself when execve() cannot.
+       */
+
+      ret = get_errno();
+      if (ret != ENOENT && ret != ENOEXEC)
+        {
+          serr("ERROR: exec failed: %d\n", ret);
+        }
+
       return ERROR;
     }
 
diff --git a/sched/task/task_posixspawn.c b/sched/task/task_posixspawn.c
index cc896c75717..b94b5d1f4c6 100644
--- a/sched/task/task_posixspawn.c
+++ b/sched/task/task_posixspawn.c
@@ -110,7 +110,17 @@ static int nxposix_spawn_exec(FAR pid_t *pidp, FAR const char *path,
   if (pid < 0)
     {
       ret = -pid;
-      serr("ERROR: exec failed: %d\n", ret);
+
+      /* No such program (ENOENT) or not a loadable format (ENOEXEC) is an
+       * ordinary result for the caller, for example a shell that tries a
+       * program before its built-in command.
+       */
+
+      if (ret != ENOENT && ret != ENOEXEC)
+        {
+          serr("ERROR: exec failed: %d\n", ret);
+        }
+
       return ret;
     }