diff --git a/ObsoleteFiles.inc b/ObsoleteFiles.inc
--- a/ObsoleteFiles.inc
+++ b/ObsoleteFiles.inc
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@
 #   xargs -n1 | sort | uniq -d;
 # done
 
+# 20250911: This tool is no longer needed
+OLD_FILES+=usr/tests/bin/cp/sparse
+
 # 20250826: Remove a misspelled manual
 OLD_FILES+=usr/share/man/man3/sysdecode_syscallnames.3.gz
 
diff --git a/bin/cp/tests/Makefile b/bin/cp/tests/Makefile
--- a/bin/cp/tests/Makefile
+++ b/bin/cp/tests/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 PACKAGE=	tests
 
 ATF_TESTS_SH=	cp_test
-PROGS+=		sparse
-BINDIR=		${TESTSDIR}
 
 .include <bsd.test.mk>
diff --git a/bin/cp/tests/cp_test.sh b/bin/cp/tests/cp_test.sh
--- a/bin/cp/tests/cp_test.sh
+++ b/bin/cp/tests/cp_test.sh
@@ -384,7 +384,7 @@
 
 file_is_sparse()
 {
-	atf_check ${0%/*}/sparse "$1"
+	atf_check -o match:"^[0-9]+-[0-9]" stat -h "$1"
 }
 
 files_are_equal()
diff --git a/bin/cp/tests/sparse.c b/bin/cp/tests/sparse.c
deleted file mode 100644
--- a/bin/cp/tests/sparse.c
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,73 +0,0 @@
-/*-
- * Copyright (c) 2023 Klara, Inc.
- *
- * SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
- */
-
-#include <err.h>
-#include <fcntl.h>
-#include <stdbool.h>
-#include <stdio.h>
-#include <stdlib.h>
-#include <sysexits.h>
-#include <unistd.h>
-
-static bool verbose;
-
-/*
- * Returns true if the file named by its argument is sparse, i.e. if
- * seeking to SEEK_HOLE returns a different value than seeking to
- * SEEK_END.
- */
-static bool
-sparse(const char *filename)
-{
-	off_t hole, end;
-	int fd;
-
-	if ((fd = open(filename, O_RDONLY)) < 0 ||
-	    (hole = lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_HOLE)) < 0 ||
-	    (end = lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_END)) < 0)
-		err(1, "%s", filename);
-	close(fd);
-	if (end > hole) {
-		if (verbose)
-			printf("%s: hole at %zu\n", filename, (size_t)hole);
-		return (true);
-	}
-	return (false);
-}
-
-static void
-usage(void)
-{
-
-	fprintf(stderr, "usage: sparse [-v] file [...]\n");
-	exit(EX_USAGE);
-}
-
-int
-main(int argc, char *argv[])
-{
-	int opt, rv;
-
-	while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "v")) != -1) {
-		switch (opt) {
-		case 'v':
-			verbose = true;
-			break;
-		default:
-			usage();
-			break;
-		}
-	}
-	argc -= optind;
-	argv += optind;
-	if (argc == 0)
-		usage();
-	rv = EXIT_SUCCESS;
-	while (argc-- > 0)
-		if (!sparse(*argv++))
-			rv = EXIT_FAILURE;
-	exit(rv);
-}