diff --git a/cache.h b/cache.h
index ac5ab4ef9d..33fc8337c6 100644
--- a/cache.h
+++ b/cache.h
@@ -830,6 +830,15 @@ struct cache_entry *index_file_exists(struct index_state *istate, const char *na
  */
 int index_name_pos(struct index_state *, const char *name, int namelen);
 
+/*
+ * Like index_name_pos, returns the position of an entry of the given name in
+ * the index if one exists, otherwise returns a negative value where the negated
+ * value minus 1 is the position where the index entry would be inserted. Unlike
+ * index_name_pos, however, a sparse index is not expanded to find an entry
+ * inside a sparse directory.
+ */
+int index_name_pos_sparse(struct index_state *, const char *name, int namelen);
+
 /*
  * Determines whether an entry with the given name exists within the
  * given index. The return value is 1 if an exact match is found, otherwise
diff --git a/read-cache.c b/read-cache.c
index 76f372ff91..06e5b06e63 100644
--- a/read-cache.c
+++ b/read-cache.c
@@ -620,6 +620,11 @@ int index_name_pos(struct index_state *istate, const char *name, int namelen)
 	return index_name_stage_pos(istate, name, namelen, 0, EXPAND_SPARSE);
 }
 
+int index_name_pos_sparse(struct index_state *istate, const char *name, int namelen)
+{
+	return index_name_stage_pos(istate, name, namelen, 0, NO_EXPAND_SPARSE);
+}
+
 int index_entry_exists(struct index_state *istate, const char *name, int namelen)
 {
 	return index_name_stage_pos(istate, name, namelen, 0, NO_EXPAND_SPARSE) >= 0;