diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
index 5b6d34be67c679d86348b3dbf6de7ae0e1a3e5a5..8e7404da64cfd2dcad98ed1c6c90818ef02a467c 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
@@ -1885,6 +1885,9 @@ qemuDomainObjPrivateXMLFormat(virBufferPtr buf,
 
     virCPUDefFormatBufFull(buf, priv->origCPU, NULL, false);
 
+    if (priv->chardevStdioLogd)
+        virBufferAddLit(buf, "<chardevStdioLogd/>");
+
     return 0;
 }
 
@@ -2156,6 +2159,9 @@ qemuDomainObjPrivateXMLParse(xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt,
     if (virCPUDefParseXML(ctxt, "./cpu", VIR_CPU_TYPE_GUEST, &priv->origCPU) < 0)
         goto error;
 
+    priv->chardevStdioLogd = virXPathBoolean("boolean(./chardevStdioLogd)",
+                                             ctxt) == 1;
+
     return 0;
 
  error:
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.h b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.h
index a2cd155c33a1cc092c931f1f980f30c35f794d09..aae322473b4d7820d2f800bd3f2d91683eec9245 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.h
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.h
@@ -297,6 +297,9 @@ struct _qemuDomainObjPrivate {
     /* CPU def used to start the domain when it differs from the one actually
      * provided by QEMU. */
     virCPUDefPtr origCPU;
+
+    /* If true virtlogd is used as stdio handler for character devices. */
+    bool chardevStdioLogd;
 };
 
 # define QEMU_DOMAIN_PRIVATE(vm)	\
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
index 85b800da3d842b8c5bf803cf6f9a16c03e7a239d..189d5c89801ad14a5ae6c8ca580bb610b691b8a3 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_process.c
@@ -5435,6 +5435,7 @@ qemuProcessPrepareDomain(virConnectPtr conn,
     size_t i;
     char *nodeset = NULL;
     qemuDomainObjPrivatePtr priv = vm->privateData;
+    virQEMUDriverConfigPtr cfg = virQEMUDriverGetConfig(driver);
     virCapsPtr caps;
 
     if (!(caps = virQEMUDriverGetCapabilities(driver, false)))
@@ -5471,6 +5472,13 @@ qemuProcessPrepareDomain(virConnectPtr conn,
         }
     }
 
+    /* Whether we should use virtlogd as stdio handler for character
+     * devices source backend. */
+    if (cfg->stdioLogD &&
+        virQEMUCapsGet(priv->qemuCaps, QEMU_CAPS_CHARDEV_FILE_APPEND)) {
+        priv->chardevStdioLogd = true;
+    }
+
     /*
      * Normally PCI addresses are assigned in the virDomainCreate
      * or virDomainDefine methods. We might still need to assign
@@ -5534,6 +5542,7 @@ qemuProcessPrepareDomain(virConnectPtr conn,
  cleanup:
     VIR_FREE(nodeset);
     virObjectUnref(caps);
+    virObjectUnref(cfg);
     return ret;
 }