diff --git a/include/libvirt/libvirt-stream.h b/include/libvirt/libvirt-stream.h
index bee25168b4..14c9af1429 100644
--- a/include/libvirt/libvirt-stream.h
+++ b/include/libvirt/libvirt-stream.h
@@ -50,6 +50,10 @@ int virStreamRecvFlags(virStreamPtr st,
                        size_t nbytes,
                        unsigned int flags);
 
+int virStreamSendHole(virStreamPtr st,
+                      long long length,
+                      unsigned int flags);
+
 
 /**
  * virStreamSourceFunc:
diff --git a/src/driver-stream.h b/src/driver-stream.h
index d4b048018d..0a52014312 100644
--- a/src/driver-stream.h
+++ b/src/driver-stream.h
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ typedef int
                          size_t nbytes,
                          unsigned int flags);
 
+typedef int
+(*virDrvStreamSendHole)(virStreamPtr st,
+                        long long length,
+                        unsigned int flags);
+
 typedef int
 (*virDrvStreamEventAddCallback)(virStreamPtr stream,
                                 int events,
@@ -68,6 +73,7 @@ struct _virStreamDriver {
     virDrvStreamSend streamSend;
     virDrvStreamRecv streamRecv;
     virDrvStreamRecvFlags streamRecvFlags;
+    virDrvStreamSendHole streamSendHole;
     virDrvStreamEventAddCallback streamEventAddCallback;
     virDrvStreamEventUpdateCallback streamEventUpdateCallback;
     virDrvStreamEventRemoveCallback streamEventRemoveCallback;
diff --git a/src/libvirt-stream.c b/src/libvirt-stream.c
index 7535deb3c7..a09896dcdf 100644
--- a/src/libvirt-stream.c
+++ b/src/libvirt-stream.c
@@ -344,6 +344,67 @@ virStreamRecvFlags(virStreamPtr stream,
 }
 
 
+/**
+ * virStreamSendHole:
+ * @stream: pointer to the stream object
+ * @length: number of bytes to skip
+ * @flags: extra flags; not used yet, so callers should always pass 0
+ *
+ * Rather than transmitting empty file space, this API directs
+ * the @stream target to create @length bytes of empty space.
+ * This API would be used when uploading or downloading sparsely
+ * populated files to avoid the needless copy of empty file
+ * space.
+ *
+ * An example using this with a hypothetical file upload API
+ * looks like:
+ *
+ *   virStream st;
+ *
+ *   while (1) {
+ *     char buf[4096];
+ *     size_t len;
+ *     if (..in hole...) {
+ *       ..get hole size...
+ *       virStreamSendHole(st, len, 0);
+ *     } else {
+ *       ...read len bytes...
+ *       virStreamSend(st, buf, len);
+ *     }
+ *   }
+ *
+ * Returns 0 on success,
+ *        -1 error
+ */
+int
+virStreamSendHole(virStreamPtr stream,
+                  long long length,
+                  unsigned int flags)
+{
+    VIR_DEBUG("stream=%p, length=%lld flags=%x",
+              stream, length, flags);
+
+    virResetLastError();
+
+    virCheckStreamReturn(stream, -1);
+
+    if (stream->driver &&
+        stream->driver->streamSendHole) {
+        int ret;
+        ret = (stream->driver->streamSendHole)(stream, length, flags);
+        if (ret < 0)
+            goto error;
+        return ret;
+    }
+
+    virReportUnsupportedError();
+
+ error:
+    virDispatchError(stream->conn);
+    return -1;
+}
+
+
 /**
  * virStreamSendAll:
  * @stream: pointer to the stream object
diff --git a/src/libvirt_public.syms b/src/libvirt_public.syms
index d50b36a247..3be7cc6a0b 100644
--- a/src/libvirt_public.syms
+++ b/src/libvirt_public.syms
@@ -762,6 +762,7 @@ LIBVIRT_3.1.0 {
 LIBVIRT_3.4.0 {
     global:
         virStreamRecvFlags;
+        virStreamSendHole;
 } LIBVIRT_3.1.0;
 
 # .... define new API here using predicted next version number ....