diff --git a/base/inifile.cc b/base/inifile.cc
index 7e7485bcb..2717a534d 100644
--- a/base/inifile.cc
+++ b/base/inifile.cc
@@ -402,6 +402,14 @@ IniFile::findAppend(const string &_section, const string &entry,
     return ret;
 }
 
+
+bool
+IniFile::sectionExists(const string &sectionName) const
+{
+    return findSection(sectionName) != NULL;
+}
+
+
 bool
 IniFile::Section::printUnreferenced(const string &sectionName)
 {
diff --git a/base/inifile.hh b/base/inifile.hh
index f67fdc7be..f7229f2f2 100644
--- a/base/inifile.hh
+++ b/base/inifile.hh
@@ -208,6 +208,13 @@ class IniFile
     bool findAppend(const std::string &section, const std::string &entry,
                     std::string &value) const;
 
+    /// Determine whether the named section exists in the .ini file.
+    /// Note that the 'Section' class is (intentionally) not public,
+    /// so all clients can do is get a bool that says whether there
+    /// are any values in that section or not.
+    /// @return True if the section exists.
+    bool sectionExists(const std::string &section) const;
+
     /// Print unreferenced entries in object.  Iteratively calls
     /// printUnreferend() on all the constituent sections.
     bool printUnreferenced();
diff --git a/sim/serialize.cc b/sim/serialize.cc
index bd528c678..0eb26c31d 100644
--- a/sim/serialize.cc
+++ b/sim/serialize.cc
@@ -494,3 +494,10 @@ Checkpoint::findObj(const std::string &section, const std::string &entry,
 
     return false;
 }
+
+
+bool
+Checkpoint::sectionExists(const std::string &section)
+{
+    return db->sectionExists(section);
+}
diff --git a/sim/serialize.hh b/sim/serialize.hh
index 78cbb702a..09e91d816 100644
--- a/sim/serialize.hh
+++ b/sim/serialize.hh
@@ -244,6 +244,8 @@ class Checkpoint
 
     bool findObj(const std::string &section, const std::string &entry,
                  Serializeable *&value);
+
+    bool sectionExists(const std::string &section);
 };