diff --git a/tools/perf/util/cgroup.c b/tools/perf/util/cgroup.c
index b078d54d424557abe83f8eb9a14c9ca29f59a02d..8ea964461eb722d2b9e5db64b717ddb0dfebc899 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/cgroup.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/cgroup.c
@@ -99,15 +99,12 @@ static int add_cgroup(struct perf_evlist *evlist, char *str)
 	 * check if cgrp is already defined, if so we reuse it
 	 */
 	evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, counter) {
-		cgrp = counter->cgrp;
-		if (!cgrp)
+		if (!counter->cgrp)
 			continue;
-		if (!strcmp(cgrp->name, str)) {
-			refcount_inc(&cgrp->refcnt);
+		if (!strcmp(counter->cgrp->name, str)) {
+			cgrp = cgroup__get(counter->cgrp);
 			break;
 		}
-
-		cgrp = NULL;
 	}
 
 	if (!cgrp) {
@@ -157,6 +154,13 @@ void cgroup__put(struct cgroup *cgrp)
 	}
 }
 
+struct cgroup *cgroup__get(struct cgroup *cgroup)
+{
+       if (cgroup)
+		refcount_inc(&cgroup->refcnt);
+       return 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 69169fbf8d1388668017caf3c7f635a70cb61789..34a6c11543dce91d29db288e7644121732487a04 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/cgroup.h
+++ b/tools/perf/util/cgroup.h
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ struct cgroup {
 
 extern int nr_cgroups; /* number of explicit cgroups defined */
 
+struct cgroup *cgroup__get(struct cgroup *cgroup);
 void cgroup__put(struct cgroup *cgroup);
 
 int parse_cgroups(const struct option *opt, const char *str, int unset);