diff --git a/src/libvirt_private.syms b/src/libvirt_private.syms
index e1702dbff3..4c1f61cefc 100644
--- a/src/libvirt_private.syms
+++ b/src/libvirt_private.syms
@@ -1908,6 +1908,7 @@ virStringSearch;
 virStringSortCompare;
 virStringSortRevCompare;
 virStringSplit;
+virStringSplitCount;
 virStrncpy;
 virStrndup;
 virStrToDouble;
diff --git a/src/util/virstring.c b/src/util/virstring.c
index 7a8430e847..6dcc7a8acc 100644
--- a/src/util/virstring.c
+++ b/src/util/virstring.c
@@ -43,13 +43,15 @@ VIR_LOG_INIT("util.string");
  */
 
 /**
- * virStringSplit:
+ * virStringSplitCount:
  * @string: a string to split
  * @delim: a string which specifies the places at which to split
  *     the string. The delimiter is not included in any of the resulting
  *     strings, unless @max_tokens is reached.
  * @max_tokens: the maximum number of pieces to split @string into.
  *     If this is 0, the string is split completely.
+ * @tokcount: If provided, the value is set to the count of pieces the string
+ *            was split to excluding the terminating NULL element.
  *
  * Splits a string into a maximum of @max_tokens pieces, using the given
  * @delim. If @max_tokens is reached, the remainder of @string is
@@ -65,9 +67,11 @@ VIR_LOG_INIT("util.string");
  * Return value: a newly-allocated NULL-terminated array of strings. Use
  *    virStringFreeList() to free it.
  */
-char **virStringSplit(const char *string,
-                      const char *delim,
-                      size_t max_tokens)
+char **
+virStringSplitCount(const char *string,
+                    const char *delim,
+                    size_t max_tokens,
+                    size_t *tokcount)
 {
     char **tokens = NULL;
     size_t ntokens = 0;
@@ -109,6 +113,9 @@ char **virStringSplit(const char *string,
         goto error;
     tokens[ntokens++] = NULL;
 
+    if (tokcount)
+        *tokcount = ntokens - 1;
+
     return tokens;
 
  error:
@@ -119,6 +126,15 @@ char **virStringSplit(const char *string,
 }
 
 
+char **
+virStringSplit(const char *string,
+               const char *delim,
+               size_t max_tokens)
+{
+    return virStringSplitCount(string, delim, max_tokens, NULL);
+}
+
+
 /**
  * virStringJoin:
  * @strings: a NULL-terminated array of strings to join
diff --git a/src/util/virstring.h b/src/util/virstring.h
index 1ed104682c..0ab9d9633f 100644
--- a/src/util/virstring.h
+++ b/src/util/virstring.h
@@ -26,6 +26,12 @@
 
 # include "internal.h"
 
+char **virStringSplitCount(const char *string,
+                           const char *delim,
+                           size_t max_tokens,
+                           size_t *tokcount)
+    ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1) ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(2);
+
 char **virStringSplit(const char *string,
                       const char *delim,
                       size_t max_tokens)
diff --git a/tests/virstringtest.c b/tests/virstringtest.c
index 96c3784a58..5277fc657a 100644
--- a/tests/virstringtest.c
+++ b/tests/virstringtest.c
@@ -53,11 +53,14 @@ static int testSplit(const void *args)
 {
     const struct testSplitData *data = args;
     char **got;
+    size_t ntokens;
+    size_t exptokens = 0;
     char **tmp1;
     const char **tmp2;
     int ret = -1;
 
-    if (!(got = virStringSplit(data->string, data->delim, data->max_tokens))) {
+    if (!(got = virStringSplitCount(data->string, data->delim,
+                                    data->max_tokens, &ntokens))) {
         VIR_DEBUG("Got no tokens at all");
         return -1;
     }
@@ -71,6 +74,7 @@ static int testSplit(const void *args)
         }
         tmp1++;
         tmp2++;
+        exptokens++;
     }
     if (*tmp1) {
         virFilePrintf(stderr, "Too many pieces returned\n");
@@ -81,6 +85,14 @@ static int testSplit(const void *args)
         goto cleanup;
     }
 
+    if (ntokens != exptokens) {
+        virFilePrintf(stderr,
+                      "Returned token count (%zu) doesn't match "
+                      "expected count (%zu)",
+                      ntokens, exptokens);
+        goto cleanup;
+    }
+
     ret = 0;
  cleanup:
     virStringFreeList(got);