diff --git a/docs/formatdomain.rst b/docs/formatdomain.rst
index da4d93a787..c6dede053f 100644
--- a/docs/formatdomain.rst
+++ b/docs/formatdomain.rst
@@ -3261,6 +3261,7 @@ A directory on the host that can be accessed directly from the guest.
+
...
diff --git a/docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst b/docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst
index 8cf7567bf8..6ba7299a72 100644
--- a/docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst
+++ b/docs/kbase/virtiofs.rst
@@ -180,4 +180,5 @@ control and need to be set by the application running virtiofsd.
+
diff --git a/src/conf/domain_validate.c b/src/conf/domain_validate.c
index bba5a85657..2124d25d16 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_validate.c
+++ b/src/conf/domain_validate.c
@@ -2036,8 +2036,10 @@ virDomainShmemDefValidate(const virDomainShmemDef *shmem)
static int
virDomainFSDefValidate(const virDomainFSDef *fs)
{
- if (fs->dst == NULL && !fs->sock) {
+ if (fs->dst == NULL) {
const char *source = fs->src->path;
+ if (!source)
+ source = fs->sock;
virReportError(VIR_ERR_NO_TARGET,
source ? "%s" : NULL, source);
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/vhost-user-fs-sock.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/vhost-user-fs-sock.xml
index aef005d3fd..e5a380c9b6 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/vhost-user-fs-sock.xml
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/vhost-user-fs-sock.xml
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
+