diff --git a/etc/inc/util.inc b/etc/inc/util.inc
index c64a5ed508..6a2047b212 100644
--- a/etc/inc/util.inc
+++ b/etc/inc/util.inc
@@ -670,7 +670,18 @@ function is_subnetoralias($subnet) {
 		return is_subnet($subnet);
 }
 
-/* returns true if $hostname is a valid hostname */
+/* returns true if $hostname is just a valid hostname (top part without any of the domain part) */
+function is_unqualified_hostname($hostname) {
+	if (!is_string($hostname))
+		return false;
+
+	if (preg_match('/^(?:[a-z0-9_]|[a-z0-9_][a-z0-9_\-]*[a-z0-9_])$/i', $hostname))
+		return true;
+	else
+		return false;
+}
+
+/* returns true if $hostname is a valid hostname, with or without being a fully-qualified domain name. */
 function is_hostname($hostname) {
 	if (!is_string($hostname))
 		return false;