diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 39c0423103c2e22ecfd346d440517f05b9929a6b..8ce7e185c067eb44c9403c99407ffa3000cf27ef 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -162,6 +162,7 @@
 /tests/*test
 /tests/commandhelper
 /tests/qemucapsprobe
+!/tests/virsh-self-test
 !/tests/virt-aa-helper-test
 /tests/objectlocking
 /tests/objectlocking-files.txt
diff --git a/tests/Makefile.am b/tests/Makefile.am
index b4fbcc4b6c233ce5be6e3e243dcfacdfa6734eca..874b9d14d07c2ca18d58b09542f450eb002a90e9 100644
--- a/tests/Makefile.am
+++ b/tests/Makefile.am
@@ -368,6 +368,7 @@ libvirtd_test_scripts =		\
 	virsh-read-bufsiz		\
 	virsh-read-non-seekable		\
 	virsh-schedinfo			\
+	virsh-self-test			\
 	virsh-start			\
 	virsh-synopsis			\
 	virsh-undefine			\
diff --git a/tests/virsh-self-test b/tests/virsh-self-test
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c51fcf46f50a18cc7bcfd633b4a288cfb923a147
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/virsh-self-test
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# run virsh self-test to make sure command option structures are valid
+
+# Copyright (C) 2016 Red Hat, Inc.
+
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program.  If not, see
+# <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+. "$(dirname $0)/test-lib.sh"
+
+fail=0
+
+test_url=test:///default
+
+test_intro "virsh-self-test"
+$abs_top_builddir/tools/virsh -c $test_url self-test > /dev/null
+status=$?
+test_result 1 "virsh-self-test" $status
+
+if test "$status" = "1" ; then
+   fail=1
+fi
+
+test_final $counter $fail
+
+(exit $fail); exit $fail
diff --git a/tools/virsh.c b/tools/virsh.c
index 2a807d99af71d60fa9c523f321582b7acdc82148..5dc482d90e62e645c95ac2852899903707d24e5b 100644
--- a/tools/virsh.c
+++ b/tools/virsh.c
@@ -341,6 +341,45 @@ virshConnectionHandler(vshControl *ctl)
     return NULL;
 }
 
+/* -----------------
+ * Command self-test
+ * ----------------- */
+
+static const vshCmdInfo info_selftest[] = {
+    {.name = "help",
+     .data = N_("internal command for testing virsh")
+    },
+    {.name = "desc",
+     .data = N_("internal use only")
+    },
+    {.name = NULL}
+};
+
+/* Prints help for every command.
+ * That runs vshCmddefOptParse which validates
+ * the per-command options structure. */
+static bool
+cmdSelfTest(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmd *cmd ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED)
+{
+    const vshCmdGrp *grp;
+    const vshCmdDef *def;
+
+    vshPrint(ctl, "Do not use the following output:\n\n");
+
+    for (grp = cmdGroups; grp->name; grp++) {
+        for (def = grp->commands; def->name; def++) {
+            if (def->flags & VSH_CMD_FLAG_ALIAS)
+                continue;
+
+            if (!vshCmddefHelp(ctl, def->name))
+                return false;
+        }
+    }
+
+    return true;
+}
+
+
 /* ---------------
  * Misc utils
  * ---------------
@@ -857,6 +896,12 @@ static const vshCmdDef virshCmds[] = {
      .info = info_connect,
      .flags = VSH_CMD_FLAG_NOCONNECT
     },
+    {.name = "self-test",
+     .handler = cmdSelfTest,
+     .opts = NULL,
+     .info = info_selftest,
+     .flags = VSH_CMD_FLAG_NOCONNECT | VSH_CMD_FLAG_ALIAS
+    },
     {.name = NULL}
 };