diff --git a/qemu-option.c b/qemu-option.c
index 735259f19de97aad7dd27ea181107764b7d941b7..de41c06ea51e73cef83be9b4391490f7287702b3 100644
--- a/qemu-option.c
+++ b/qemu-option.c
@@ -778,6 +778,39 @@ QemuOpts *qemu_opts_parse(QemuOptsList *list, const char *params, const char *fi
     return opts;
 }
 
+/* Validate parsed opts against descriptions where no
+ * descriptions were provided in the QemuOptsList.
+ */
+int qemu_opts_validate(QemuOpts *opts, QemuOptDesc *desc)
+{
+    QemuOpt *opt;
+
+    assert(opts->list->desc[0].name == NULL);
+
+    QTAILQ_FOREACH(opt, &opts->head, next) {
+        int i;
+
+        for (i = 0; desc[i].name != NULL; i++) {
+            if (strcmp(desc[i].name, opt->name) == 0) {
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+        if (desc[i].name == NULL) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "option \"%s\" is not valid for %s\n",
+                    opt->name, opts->list->name);
+            return -1;
+        }
+
+        opt->desc = &desc[i];
+
+        if (qemu_opt_parse(opt) < 0) {
+            return -1;
+        }
+    }
+
+    return 0;
+}
+
 int qemu_opts_foreach(QemuOptsList *list, qemu_opts_loopfunc func, void *opaque,
                       int abort_on_failure)
 {
diff --git a/qemu-option.h b/qemu-option.h
index 525b9b6f066195c21441aa7a9b317429ab69b8d9..666b666b3352e16fe4858e9b92a51252d5092b80 100644
--- a/qemu-option.h
+++ b/qemu-option.h
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ int qemu_opts_set(QemuOptsList *list, const char *id,
                   const char *name, const char *value);
 const char *qemu_opts_id(QemuOpts *opts);
 void qemu_opts_del(QemuOpts *opts);
+int qemu_opts_validate(QemuOpts *opts, QemuOptDesc *desc);
 int qemu_opts_do_parse(QemuOpts *opts, const char *params, const char *firstname);
 QemuOpts *qemu_opts_parse(QemuOptsList *list, const char *params, const char *firstname);