diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_conf.c b/src/qemu/qemu_conf.c
index d77fd6ff0d6e37e9a03dba38311b78cca9c21074..ddd8db9d542f6c972bc702577694edc6eff6dcbc 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_conf.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_conf.c
@@ -894,6 +894,8 @@ static unsigned int qemudComputeCmdFlags(const char *help,
         flags |= QEMUD_CMD_FLAG_PCIDEVICE;
     if (strstr(help, "-mem-path"))
         flags |= QEMUD_CMD_FLAG_MEM_PATH;
+    if (strstr(help, "-chardev"))
+        flags |= QEMUD_CMD_FLAG_CHARDEV;
 
     if (version >= 9000)
         flags |= QEMUD_CMD_FLAG_VNC_COLON;
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_conf.h b/src/qemu/qemu_conf.h
index 42b8f56b7a8b4d0388f93da65f63c3c18c1ea47a..5d433d38db5a82ef8ff4d423c19f85cc123af685 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_conf.h
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_conf.h
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ enum qemud_cmd_flags {
     QEMUD_CMD_FLAG_DRIVE_SERIAL  = (1 << 19), /* -driver serial=  available */
     QEMUD_CMD_FLAG_XEN_DOMID     = (1 << 20), /* -xen-domid (new style xen integration) */
     QEMUD_CMD_FLAG_MIGRATE_QEMU_UNIX = (1 << 21), /* Does qemu support unix domain sockets for migration? */
+    QEMUD_CMD_FLAG_CHARDEV       = (1 << 22), /* Is the new -chardev arg available */
 };
 
 /* Main driver state */