diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index ca178d90cd0964093a142b06129097c8cdb0dcd0..15114c66daca7e5bbbd1bc0abf31a8afa68210db 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -8560,10 +8560,7 @@ qemuBuildShmemBackendStr(virLogManagerPtr logManager,
 {
     char *devstr = NULL;
 
-    if (!shmem->server.chr.data.nix.path &&
-        virAsprintf(&shmem->server.chr.data.nix.path,
-                    "/var/lib/libvirt/shmem-%s-sock",
-                    shmem->name) < 0)
+    if (qemuDomainPrepareShmemChardev(shmem) < 0)
         return NULL;
 
     devstr = qemuBuildChrChardevStr(logManager, cmd, cfg, def,
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
index 3f16dbee2e6aa77de33198355b1750637cd28fb6..177525b0ab81623938a25d498d8c97b3d8b9601f 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
@@ -6056,6 +6056,19 @@ qemuDomainPrepareChannel(virDomainChrDefPtr channel,
 }
 
 
+int
+qemuDomainPrepareShmemChardev(virDomainShmemDefPtr shmem)
+{
+    if (!shmem->server.enabled ||
+        shmem->server.chr.data.nix.path)
+        return 0;
+
+    return virAsprintf(&shmem->server.chr.data.nix.path,
+                       "/var/lib/libvirt/shmem-%s-sock",
+                       shmem->name);
+}
+
+
 /**
  * qemuDomainVcpuHotplugIsInOrder:
  * @def: domain definition
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.h b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.h
index a1404d037825be9b6dae75e6e7e02189acde4170..c2fab3ba35212de328774c6a6a585186f45e4ff2 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.h
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.h
@@ -722,6 +722,9 @@ int qemuDomainPrepareChannel(virDomainChrDefPtr chr,
                              const char *domainChannelTargetDir)
     ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1) ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(2);
 
+int qemuDomainPrepareShmemChardev(virDomainShmemDefPtr shmem)
+    ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1);
+
 bool qemuDomainVcpuHotplugIsInOrder(virDomainDefPtr def)
     ATTRIBUTE_NONNULL(1);