diff --git a/validation/linux_ns_path.go b/validation/linux_ns_path.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..529710b4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/validation/linux_ns_path.go
@@ -0,0 +1,138 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"os/exec"
+	"runtime"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/mndrix/tap-go"
+	rspec "github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/specs-go"
+	"github.com/opencontainers/runtime-tools/validation/util"
+)
+
+func getRuntimeToolsNamespace(ns string) string {
+	// Deal with exceptional cases of "net" and "mnt", because those strings
+	// cannot be recognized by mapStrToNamespace(), which actually expects
+	// "network" and "mount" respectively.
+	switch ns {
+	case "net":
+		return "network"
+	case "mnt":
+		return "mount"
+	}
+
+	// In other cases, return just the original string
+	return ns
+}
+
+func testNamespacePath(t *tap.T, ns string, unshareOpt string) error {
+	// Calling 'unshare' (part of util-linux) is easier than doing it from
+	// Golang: mnt namespaces cannot be unshared from multithreaded
+	// programs.
+	cmd := exec.Command("unshare", unshareOpt, "--fork", "sleep", "10000")
+	err := cmd.Start()
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot run unshare: %s", err)
+	}
+	defer func() {
+		if cmd.Process != nil {
+			cmd.Process.Kill()
+		}
+		cmd.Wait()
+	}()
+	if cmd.Process == nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("process failed to start")
+	}
+	unsharePid := cmd.Process.Pid
+
+	// Wait until 'unshare' switched its namespace
+	// TODO: avoid synchronisation with sleeps.
+	time.Sleep(time.Second)
+
+	specialChildren := ""
+	if ns == "pid" {
+		// Unsharing pidns does not move the process into the new
+		// pidns but the next forked process. 'unshare' is called with
+		// '--fork' so the pidns will be fully created and populated
+		// with a pid 1.
+		//
+		// However, finding out the pid of the child process is not
+		// trivial: it would require to parse
+		// /proc/$pid/task/$tid/children but that only works on kernels
+		// with CONFIG_PROC_CHILDREN (not all distros have that).
+		//
+		// It is easier to look at /proc/$pid/ns/pid_for_children on
+		// the parent process. Available since Linux 4.12.
+		specialChildren = "_for_children"
+	}
+	unshareNsPath := fmt.Sprintf("/proc/%d/ns/%s", unsharePid, ns+specialChildren)
+	unshareNsInode, err := os.Readlink(unshareNsPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("cannot read namespace link for the unshare process: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	g := util.GetDefaultGenerator()
+
+	rtns := getRuntimeToolsNamespace(ns)
+	g.AddOrReplaceLinuxNamespace(rtns, unshareNsPath)
+
+	// The spec is not clear about userns mappings when reusing an
+	// existing userns.
+	// See https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/issues/961
+	//if ns == "user" {
+	//	g.AddLinuxUIDMapping(uint32(1000), uint32(0), uint32(1000))
+	//	g.AddLinuxGIDMapping(uint32(1000), uint32(0), uint32(1000))
+	//}
+
+	err = util.RuntimeOutsideValidate(g, func(config *rspec.Spec, state *rspec.State) error {
+		containerNsPath := fmt.Sprintf("/proc/%d/ns/%s", state.Pid, ns)
+		containerNsInode, err := os.Readlink(containerNsPath)
+		if err != nil {
+			out, err2 := exec.Command("sh", "-c", fmt.Sprintf("ls -la /proc/%d/ns/", state.Pid)).CombinedOutput()
+			return fmt.Errorf("cannot read namespace link for the container process: %s\n%v\n%v", err, err2, out)
+		}
+		if containerNsInode != unshareNsInode {
+			return fmt.Errorf("expected: %q, found: %q", unshareNsInode, containerNsInode)
+		}
+		return nil
+	})
+
+	return err
+}
+
+func main() {
+	t := tap.New()
+	t.Header(0)
+
+	cases := []struct {
+		name       string
+		unshareOpt string
+	}{
+		{"cgroup", "--cgroup"},
+		{"ipc", "--ipc"},
+		{"mnt", "--mount"},
+		{"net", "--net"},
+		{"pid", "--pid"},
+		{"user", "--user"},
+		{"uts", "--uts"},
+	}
+
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		if "linux" != runtime.GOOS {
+			t.Skip(1, fmt.Sprintf("linux-specific namespace test: %s", c))
+		}
+
+		err := testNamespacePath(t, c.name, c.unshareOpt)
+		t.Ok(err == nil, fmt.Sprintf("set %s namespace by path", c.name))
+		if err != nil {
+			diagnostic := map[string]string{
+				"error": err.Error(),
+			}
+			t.YAML(diagnostic)
+		}
+	}
+
+	t.AutoPlan()
+}