diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index 1d445f572987..069ee3b5c651 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -4971,7 +4971,7 @@ M:	Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
 M:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
 M:	Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@ghostprotocols.net>
 S:	Supported
-F:	kernel/perf_event*.c
+F:	kernel/events/*
 F:	include/linux/perf_event.h
 F:	arch/*/kernel/perf_event*.c
 F:	arch/*/kernel/*/perf_event*.c
diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
index f6426b496f4a..6b0519f885e4 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ static int			freq				=   1000;
 static int			output;
 static int			pipe_output			=      0;
 static const char		*output_name			= NULL;
-static int			group				=      0;
+static bool			group				=  false;
 static int			realtime_prio			=      0;
 static bool			nodelay				=  false;
 static bool			raw_samples			=  false;
@@ -753,6 +753,8 @@ const struct option record_options[] = {
 		    "child tasks do not inherit counters"),
 	OPT_UINTEGER('F', "freq", &user_freq, "profile at this frequency"),
 	OPT_UINTEGER('m', "mmap-pages", &mmap_pages, "number of mmap data pages"),
+	OPT_BOOLEAN(0, "group", &group,
+		    "put the counters into a counter group"),
 	OPT_BOOLEAN('g', "call-graph", &call_graph,
 		    "do call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording"),
 	OPT_INCR('v', "verbose", &verbose,
diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index 1ad04ce29c34..5deb17d9e795 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ static int			big_num_opt			=  -1;
 static const char		*cpu_list;
 static const char		*csv_sep			= NULL;
 static bool			csv_output			= false;
+static bool			group				= false;
 
 static volatile int done = 0;
 
@@ -280,14 +281,14 @@ static int create_perf_stat_counter(struct perf_evsel *evsel)
 	attr->inherit = !no_inherit;
 
 	if (system_wide)
-		return perf_evsel__open_per_cpu(evsel, evsel_list->cpus, false);
+		return perf_evsel__open_per_cpu(evsel, evsel_list->cpus, group);
 
 	if (target_pid == -1 && target_tid == -1) {
 		attr->disabled = 1;
 		attr->enable_on_exec = 1;
 	}
 
-	return perf_evsel__open_per_thread(evsel, evsel_list->threads, false);
+	return perf_evsel__open_per_thread(evsel, evsel_list->threads, group);
 }
 
 /*
@@ -1043,6 +1044,8 @@ static const struct option options[] = {
 		    "stat events on existing thread id"),
 	OPT_BOOLEAN('a', "all-cpus", &system_wide,
 		    "system-wide collection from all CPUs"),
+	OPT_BOOLEAN('g', "group", &group,
+		    "put the counters into a counter group"),
 	OPT_BOOLEAN('c', "scale", &scale,
 		    "scale/normalize counters"),
 	OPT_INCR('v', "verbose", &verbose,
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/evlist.c b/tools/perf/util/evlist.c
index e03e7bc8205e..c12bd476c6f7 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/evlist.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/evlist.c
@@ -85,10 +85,19 @@ int perf_evlist__add_default(struct perf_evlist *evlist)
 	struct perf_evsel *evsel = perf_evsel__new(&attr, 0);
 
 	if (evsel == NULL)
-		return -ENOMEM;
+		goto error;
+
+	/* use strdup() because free(evsel) assumes name is allocated */
+	evsel->name = strdup("cycles");
+	if (!evsel->name)
+		goto error_free;
 
 	perf_evlist__add(evlist, evsel);
 	return 0;
+error_free:
+	perf_evsel__delete(evsel);
+error:
+	return -ENOMEM;
 }
 
 void perf_evlist__disable(struct perf_evlist *evlist)
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/include/linux/compiler.h b/tools/perf/util/include/linux/compiler.h
index 791f9dd27ebf..547628e97f3d 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/include/linux/compiler.h
+++ b/tools/perf/util/include/linux/compiler.h
@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@
 #define __always_inline	inline
 #endif
 #define __user
+#ifndef __attribute_const__
 #define __attribute_const__
+#endif
 
 #define __used		__attribute__((__unused__))
 
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/parse-events.c b/tools/perf/util/parse-events.c
index 4ea7e19f5251..928918b796b2 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/parse-events.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/parse-events.c
@@ -697,7 +697,11 @@ parse_raw_event(const char **strp, struct perf_event_attr *attr)
 		return EVT_FAILED;
 	n = hex2u64(str + 1, &config);
 	if (n > 0) {
-		*strp = str + n + 1;
+		const char *end = str + n + 1;
+		if (*end != '\0' && *end != ',' && *end != ':')
+			return EVT_FAILED;
+
+		*strp = end;
 		attr->type = PERF_TYPE_RAW;
 		attr->config = config;
 		return EVT_HANDLED;
@@ -1097,6 +1101,4 @@ void print_events(const char *event_glob)
 	printf("\n");
 
 	print_tracepoint_events(NULL, NULL);
-
-	exit(129);
 }