diff --git a/kitty/backtrace.h b/kitty/backtrace.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e3497bba5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kitty/backtrace.h
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2022 Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
+ *
+ * Distributed under terms of the GPL3 license.
+ */
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <signal.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+#if __has_include(<execinfo.h>)
+#include <execinfo.h>
+
+static inline void
+print_stack_trace(void) {
+    void *array[256];
+    size_t size;
+
+    // get void*'s for all entries on the stack
+    size = backtrace(array, 256);
+
+    // print out all the frames to stderr
+    backtrace_symbols_fd(array, size, STDERR_FILENO);
+}
+#else
+static inline void
+print_stack_trace(void) {
+    fprintf(stderr, "stack trace functionality not available");
+}
+#endif