diff --git a/include/crm/common/Makefile.am b/include/crm/common/Makefile.am
index dcfe7ce926..e181123358 100644
--- a/include/crm/common/Makefile.am
+++ b/include/crm/common/Makefile.am
@@ -1,53 +1,54 @@
 #
 # Copyright 2004-2022 the Pacemaker project contributors
 #
 # The version control history for this file may have further details.
 #
 # This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2
 # or later (GPLv2+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
 #
 
 MAINTAINERCLEANFILES = Makefile.in
 
 headerdir=$(pkgincludedir)/crm/common
 
 header_HEADERS = acl.h \
 				 agents.h \
 				 agents_compat.h \
 				 cib.h \
 				 ipc.h \
 				 ipc_attrd_internal.h \
 				 ipc_controld.h \
 				 ipc_pacemakerd.h \
 				 ipc_schedulerd.h \
 				 iso8601.h \
 				 logging.h \
 				 logging_compat.h \
 				 mainloop.h \
 				 mainloop_compat.h \
 				 nvpair.h \
 				 output.h \
 				 results.h \
 				 results_compat.h \
 				 util.h \
 				 util_compat.h \
 				 xml.h \
 				 xml_compat.h
 
 noinst_HEADERS = acl_internal.h 	\
 				 alerts_internal.h	\
 				 attrd_internal.h	\
 				 cmdline_internal.h	\
 				 health_internal.h	\
 				 internal.h		\
 				 ipc_internal.h		\
 				 iso8601_internal.h	\
 				 lists_internal.h	\
 				 logging_internal.h	\
 				 messages_internal.h	\
 				 options_internal.h	\
 				 output_internal.h	\
 				 remote_internal.h	\
 				 results_internal.h	\
 				 strings_internal.h	\
+				 unittest_internal.h \
 				 xml_internal.h
diff --git a/include/crm/common/unittest_internal.h b/include/crm/common/unittest_internal.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a29772c45f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/crm/common/unittest_internal.h
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2022 the Pacemaker project contributors
+ *
+ * The version control history for this file may have further details.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ * version 2.1 or later (LGPLv2.1+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
+ */
+
+#include <signal.h>
+#include <sys/resource.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/wait.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+#ifndef CRM_COMMON_UNITTEST_INTERNAL__H
+#define CRM_COMMON_UNITTEST_INTERNAL__H
+
+/* internal unit testing related utilities */
+
+/* A cmocka-like assert macro for use in unit testing.  This one verifies that
+ * an expression aborts through CRM_ASSERT, erroring out if that is not the case.
+ *
+ * This macro works by running the expression in a forked child process with core
+ * dumps disabled (CRM_ASSERT calls abort(), which will write out a core dump).
+ * The parent waits for the child to exit and checks why.  If the child received
+ * a SIGABRT, the test passes.  For all other cases, the test fails.
+ */
+#define pcmk__assert_asserts(expr) \
+    do { \
+        pid_t p = fork(); \
+        if (p == 0) { \
+            struct rlimit cores = { 0, 0 }; \
+            setrlimit(RLIMIT_CORE, &cores); \
+            expr; \
+            _exit(0); \
+        } else if (p > 0) { \
+            int wstatus = 0; \
+            if (waitpid(p, &wstatus, 0) == -1) { \
+                fail_msg("waitpid failed"); \
+            } \
+            if (!(WIFSIGNALED(wstatus) && WTERMSIG(wstatus) == SIGABRT)) { \
+                fail_msg("expr terminated without asserting"); \
+            } \
+        } else { \
+            fail_msg("unable to fork for assert test"); \
+        } \
+    } while (0);
+
+#endif /* CRM_COMMON_UNITTEST_INTERNAL__H */