diff --git a/cutils.c b/cutils.c
index a6ffd46445..af308cd7b9 100644
--- a/cutils.c
+++ b/cutils.c
@@ -303,6 +303,41 @@ void qemu_iovec_memset_skip(QEMUIOVector *qiov, int c, size_t count,
     }
 }
 
+/*
+ * Checks if a buffer is all zeroes
+ *
+ * Attention! The len must be a multiple of 4 * sizeof(long) due to
+ * restriction of optimizations in this function.
+ */
+bool buffer_is_zero(const void *buf, size_t len)
+{
+    /*
+     * Use long as the biggest available internal data type that fits into the
+     * CPU register and unroll the loop to smooth out the effect of memory
+     * latency.
+     */
+
+    size_t i;
+    long d0, d1, d2, d3;
+    const long * const data = buf;
+
+    assert(len % (4 * sizeof(long)) == 0);
+    len /= sizeof(long);
+
+    for (i = 0; i < len; i += 4) {
+        d0 = data[i + 0];
+        d1 = data[i + 1];
+        d2 = data[i + 2];
+        d3 = data[i + 3];
+
+        if (d0 || d1 || d2 || d3) {
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+
+    return true;
+}
+
 #ifndef _WIN32
 /* Sets a specific flag */
 int fcntl_setfl(int fd, int flag)
diff --git a/qemu-common.h b/qemu-common.h
index 9b997f8838..c5e9cad35e 100644
--- a/qemu-common.h
+++ b/qemu-common.h
@@ -335,6 +335,8 @@ void qemu_iovec_memset(QEMUIOVector *qiov, int c, size_t count);
 void qemu_iovec_memset_skip(QEMUIOVector *qiov, int c, size_t count,
                             size_t skip);
 
+bool buffer_is_zero(const void *buf, size_t len);
+
 void qemu_progress_init(int enabled, float min_skip);
 void qemu_progress_end(void);
 void qemu_progress_print(float delta, int max);
diff --git a/qemu-img.c b/qemu-img.c
index 01cc0d35ad..c4bcf41e15 100644
--- a/qemu-img.c
+++ b/qemu-img.c
@@ -514,40 +514,6 @@ static int img_commit(int argc, char **argv)
     return 0;
 }
 
-/*
- * Checks whether the sector is not a zero sector.
- *
- * Attention! The len must be a multiple of 4 * sizeof(long) due to
- * restriction of optimizations in this function.
- */
-static int is_not_zero(const uint8_t *sector, int len)
-{
-    /*
-     * Use long as the biggest available internal data type that fits into the
-     * CPU register and unroll the loop to smooth out the effect of memory
-     * latency.
-     */
-
-    int i;
-    long d0, d1, d2, d3;
-    const long * const data = (const long *) sector;
-
-    len /= sizeof(long);
-
-    for(i = 0; i < len; i += 4) {
-        d0 = data[i + 0];
-        d1 = data[i + 1];
-        d2 = data[i + 2];
-        d3 = data[i + 3];
-
-        if (d0 || d1 || d2 || d3) {
-            return 1;
-        }
-    }
-
-    return 0;
-}
-
 /*
  * Returns true iff the first sector pointed to by 'buf' contains at least
  * a non-NUL byte.
@@ -557,20 +523,22 @@ static int is_not_zero(const uint8_t *sector, int len)
  */
 static int is_allocated_sectors(const uint8_t *buf, int n, int *pnum)
 {
-    int v, i;
+    bool is_zero;
+    int i;
 
     if (n <= 0) {
         *pnum = 0;
         return 0;
     }
-    v = is_not_zero(buf, 512);
+    is_zero = buffer_is_zero(buf, 512);
     for(i = 1; i < n; i++) {
         buf += 512;
-        if (v != is_not_zero(buf, 512))
+        if (is_zero != buffer_is_zero(buf, 512)) {
             break;
+        }
     }
     *pnum = i;
-    return v;
+    return !is_zero;
 }
 
 /*
@@ -955,7 +923,7 @@ static int img_convert(int argc, char **argv)
             if (n < cluster_sectors) {
                 memset(buf + n * 512, 0, cluster_size - n * 512);
             }
-            if (is_not_zero(buf, cluster_size)) {
+            if (!buffer_is_zero(buf, cluster_size)) {
                 ret = bdrv_write_compressed(out_bs, sector_num, buf,
                                             cluster_sectors);
                 if (ret != 0) {