diff --git a/t/t0500-progress-display.sh b/t/t0500-progress-display.sh
index 1ed1df351c..84cce345e7 100755
--- a/t/t0500-progress-display.sh
+++ b/t/t0500-progress-display.sh
@@ -303,8 +303,7 @@ test_expect_success 'progress generates traces' '
 		"Working hard" <in 2>stderr &&
 
 	# t0212/parse_events.perl intentionally omits regions and data.
-	grep -e "region_enter" -e "\"category\":\"progress\"" trace.event &&
-	grep -e "region_leave" -e "\"category\":\"progress\"" trace.event &&
+	test_region progress "Working hard" trace.event &&
 	grep "\"key\":\"total_objects\",\"value\":\"40\"" trace.event &&
 	grep "\"key\":\"total_bytes\",\"value\":\"409600\"" trace.event
 '
diff --git a/t/test-lib-functions.sh b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
index 999982fe4a..9fc4cf8476 100644
--- a/t/test-lib-functions.sh
+++ b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
@@ -1655,3 +1655,45 @@ test_subcommand () {
 		grep "\[$expr\]"
 	fi
 }
+
+# Check that the given command was invoked as part of the
+# trace2-format trace on stdin.
+#
+#	test_region [!] <category> <label> git <command> <args>...
+#
+# For example, to look for trace2_region_enter("index", "do_read_index", repo)
+# in an invocation of "git checkout HEAD~1", run
+#
+#	GIT_TRACE2_EVENT="$(pwd)/trace.txt" GIT_TRACE2_EVENT_NESTING=10 \
+#		git checkout HEAD~1 &&
+#	test_region index do_read_index <trace.txt
+#
+# If the first parameter passed is !, this instead checks that
+# the given region was not entered.
+#
+test_region () {
+	local expect_exit=0
+	if test "$1" = "!"
+	then
+		expect_exit=1
+		shift
+	fi
+
+	grep -e	'"region_enter".*"category":"'"$1"'","label":"'"$2"\" "$3"
+	exitcode=$?
+
+	if test $exitcode != $expect_exit
+	then
+		return 1
+	fi
+
+	grep -e	'"region_leave".*"category":"'"$1"'","label":"'"$2"\" "$3"
+	exitcode=$?
+
+	if test $exitcode != $expect_exit
+	then
+		return 1
+	fi
+
+	return 0
+}