diff --git a/util.c b/util.c
index b4d6eefbd2..3fe59c8ebb 100644
--- a/util.c
+++ b/util.c
@@ -42,6 +42,19 @@
 #include "log.h"
 #include "strv.h"
 
+bool streq_ptr(const char *a, const char *b) {
+
+        /* Like streq(), but tries to make sense of NULL pointers */
+
+        if (a && b)
+                return streq(a, b);
+
+        if (!a && !b)
+                return true;
+
+        return false;
+}
+
 usec_t now(clockid_t clock_id) {
         struct timespec ts;
 
diff --git a/util.h b/util.h
index 30a0616d54..4881c981b9 100644
--- a/util.h
+++ b/util.h
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ struct timeval *timeval_store(struct timeval *tv, usec_t u);
 
 #define streq(a,b) (strcmp((a),(b)) == 0)
 
+bool streq_ptr(const char *a, const char *b);
+
 #define new(t, n) ((t*) malloc(sizeof(t)*(n)))
 
 #define new0(t, n) ((t*) calloc((n), sizeof(t)))