diff --git a/src/frontend/inpcom.c b/src/frontend/inpcom.c
index 7cb87e97f..2f477c106 100644
--- a/src/frontend/inpcom.c
+++ b/src/frontend/inpcom.c
@@ -4063,7 +4063,7 @@ b_transformation_wanted(const char *p)
 }
 
 
-static char *
+char *
 search_identifier(char *str, const char *identifier, char *str_begin)
 {
     while ((str = strstr(str, identifier)) != NULL) {
diff --git a/src/include/ngspice/fteext.h b/src/include/ngspice/fteext.h
index b5ec9133d..18a2db7b5 100644
--- a/src/include/ngspice/fteext.h
+++ b/src/include/ngspice/fteext.h
@@ -213,6 +213,7 @@ extern void inp_casefix(char *string);
 extern void inp_list(FILE *file, struct line *deck, struct line *extras, int type);
 extern struct line *inp_readall(FILE *fp, char *dir_name, bool comfile, bool intfile);
 extern FILE *inp_pathopen(char *name, char *mode);
+extern char *search_identifier(char *str, const char *identifier, char *str_begin);
 
 extern char** circarray;