diff --git a/tools/virsh-snapshot.c b/tools/virsh-snapshot.c
index 025321c58e0aa499c48059f27ba076082aea94bc..6ea6e2744ab269d226fb871a22ac7fd0dd5d99f7 100644
--- a/tools/virsh-snapshot.c
+++ b/tools/virsh-snapshot.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * virsh-snapshot.c: Commands to manage domain snapshot
  *
- * Copyright (C) 2005, 2007-2016 Red Hat, Inc.
+ * Copyright (C) 2005-2019 Red Hat, Inc.
  *
  * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
@@ -1351,8 +1351,9 @@ virshSnapshotListCollect(vshControl *ctl, virDomainPtr dom,
             }
         }
     }
-    qsort(snaplist->snaps, snaplist->nsnaps, sizeof(*snaplist->snaps),
-          virshSnapSorter);
+    if (!(orig_flags & VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_LIST_TOPOLOGICAL))
+        qsort(snaplist->snaps, snaplist->nsnaps, sizeof(*snaplist->snaps),
+              virshSnapSorter);
     snaplist->nsnaps -= deleted;
 
     VIR_STEAL_PTR(ret, snaplist);
@@ -1451,6 +1452,10 @@ static const vshCmdOptDef opts_snapshot_list[] = {
      .type = VSH_OT_BOOL,
      .help = N_("list snapshot names only")
     },
+    {.name = "topological",
+     .type = VSH_OT_BOOL,
+     .help = N_("sort list topologically rather than by name"),
+    },
 
     {.name = NULL}
 };
@@ -1512,6 +1517,9 @@ cmdSnapshotList(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmd *cmd)
     FILTER("external", EXTERNAL);
 #undef FILTER
 
+    if (vshCommandOptBool(cmd, "topological"))
+        flags |= VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_LIST_TOPOLOGICAL;
+
     if (roots)
         flags |= VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_LIST_ROOTS;
 
diff --git a/tools/virsh.pod b/tools/virsh.pod
index 5759a396d4082eec259e39323cf66b171d0801c4..66e2bf24ecd380520ee36b7e20e07cf003eeb064 100644
--- a/tools/virsh.pod
+++ b/tools/virsh.pod
@@ -4726,7 +4726,7 @@ Output basic information about a named <snapshot>, or the current snapshot
 with I<--current>.
 
 =item B<snapshot-list> I<domain> [I<--metadata>] [I<--no-metadata>]
-[{I<--parent> | I<--roots> | [{I<--tree> | I<--name>}]}]
+[{I<--parent> | I<--roots> | [{I<--tree> | I<--name>}]}] [I<--topological>]
 [{[I<--from>] B<snapshot> | I<--current>} [I<--descendants>]]
 [I<--leaves>] [I<--no-leaves>] [I<--inactive>] [I<--active>]
 [I<--disk-only>] [I<--internal>] [I<--external>]
@@ -4734,6 +4734,11 @@ with I<--current>.
 List all of the available snapshots for the given domain, defaulting
 to show columns for the snapshot name, creation time, and domain state.
 
+Normally, table form output is sorted by snapshot name; using
+I<--topological> instead sorts so that no child is listed before its
+ancestors (although there may be more than one possible ordering with
+this property).
+
 If I<--parent> is specified, add a column to the output table giving
 the name of the parent of each snapshot.  If I<--roots> is specified,
 the list will be filtered to just snapshots that have no parents.