diff --git a/tools/perf/util/cgroup.c b/tools/perf/util/cgroup.c
index 6fd33ffc2488d1ca893887c486eddee9fa04507f..d8cd0e601c560a51aa40378daf84b53edfaa11dd 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/cgroup.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/cgroup.c
@@ -182,6 +182,20 @@ struct cgroup *cgroup__get(struct cgroup *cgroup)
        return cgroup;
 }
 
+static void evsel__set_default_cgroup(struct perf_evsel *evsel, struct cgroup *cgroup)
+{
+	if (evsel->cgrp == NULL)
+		evsel->cgrp = cgroup__get(cgroup);
+}
+
+void evlist__set_default_cgroup(struct perf_evlist *evlist, struct cgroup *cgroup)
+{
+	struct perf_evsel *evsel;
+
+	evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, evsel)
+		evsel__set_default_cgroup(evsel, cgroup);
+}
+
 int parse_cgroups(const struct option *opt, const char *str,
 		  int unset __maybe_unused)
 {
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/cgroup.h b/tools/perf/util/cgroup.h
index 0e377e6340dddbe1835c29db892113679eca76d1..b213f5e9a3ed426633db8bb3604a92db72ee90c8 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/cgroup.h
+++ b/tools/perf/util/cgroup.h
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ struct perf_evlist;
 
 struct cgroup *evlist__findnew_cgroup(struct perf_evlist *evlist, char *name);
 
+void evlist__set_default_cgroup(struct perf_evlist *evlist, struct cgroup *cgroup);
+
 int parse_cgroups(const struct option *opt, const char *str, int unset);
 
 #endif /* __CGROUP_H__ */