diff --git a/src/libvirt_private.syms b/src/libvirt_private.syms
index 06e37c817f..ee7fdcfab4 100644
--- a/src/libvirt_private.syms
+++ b/src/libvirt_private.syms
@@ -3070,6 +3070,7 @@ virProcessGetMaxMemLock;
 virProcessGetNamespaces;
 virProcessGetPids;
 virProcessGetStartTime;
+virProcessGroupGet;
 virProcessGroupKill;
 virProcessKill;
 virProcessKillPainfully;
diff --git a/src/util/virprocess.c b/src/util/virprocess.c
index 5f01dd1f67..1bc840120a 100644
--- a/src/util/virprocess.c
+++ b/src/util/virprocess.c
@@ -378,6 +378,23 @@ int virProcessGroupKill(pid_t pid, int sig G_GNUC_UNUSED)
 }
 
 
+/* get process group from a pid */
+pid_t virProcessGroupGet(pid_t pid)
+{
+    if (pid <= 1) {
+        errno = ESRCH;
+        return -1;
+    }
+
+#ifdef WIN32
+    errno = ENOSYS;
+    return -1;
+#else
+    return getpgid(pid);
+#endif
+}
+
+
 /*
  * Try to kill the process and verify it has exited
  *
diff --git a/src/util/virprocess.h b/src/util/virprocess.h
index 0359d7fd9f..9d7c0f479a 100644
--- a/src/util/virprocess.h
+++ b/src/util/virprocess.h
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ virProcessWait(pid_t pid, int *exitstatus, bool raw)
 
 int virProcessKill(pid_t pid, int sig);
 int virProcessGroupKill(pid_t pid, int sig);
+pid_t virProcessGroupGet(pid_t pid);
 
 int virProcessKillPainfully(pid_t pid, bool force);
 int virProcessKillPainfullyDelay(pid_t pid,