bool metric_only = config->metric_only;
        int interval = config->interval;
        struct evsel *counter;
-       char buf[64], *prefix = NULL;
+       char buf[64];
+       struct outstate os = {
+               .fh = config->output,
+       };
 
        if (config->iostat_run)
                evlist->selected = evlist__first(evlist);
 
        if (interval) {
-               prefix = buf;
+               os.prefix = buf;
                prepare_interval(config, buf, sizeof(buf), ts);
        }
 
        case AGGR_SOCKET:
        case AGGR_NODE:
                if (config->cgroup_list)
-                       print_aggr_cgroup(config, evlist, prefix);
+                       print_aggr_cgroup(config, evlist, os.prefix);
                else
-                       print_aggr(config, evlist, prefix);
+                       print_aggr(config, evlist, os.prefix);
                break;
        case AGGR_THREAD:
        case AGGR_GLOBAL:
                if (config->iostat_run) {
-                       iostat_print_counters(evlist, config, ts, prefix = buf,
+                       iostat_print_counters(evlist, config, ts, buf,
                                              print_counter);
                } else if (config->cgroup_list) {
-                       print_cgroup_counter(config, evlist, prefix);
+                       print_cgroup_counter(config, evlist, os.prefix);
                } else {
-                       print_metric_begin(config, evlist, prefix,
+                       print_metric_begin(config, evlist, os.prefix,
                                           /*aggr_idx=*/0, /*cgrp=*/NULL);
                        evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, counter) {
-                               print_counter(config, counter, prefix);
+                               print_counter(config, counter, os.prefix);
                        }
                        print_metric_end(config);
                }
                break;
        case AGGR_NONE:
                if (metric_only)
-                       print_no_aggr_metric(config, evlist, prefix);
+                       print_no_aggr_metric(config, evlist, os.prefix);
                else {
                        evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, counter) {
                                if (counter->percore)
-                                       print_percore(config, counter, prefix);
+                                       print_percore(config, counter, os.prefix);
                                else
-                                       print_counter(config, counter, prefix);
+                                       print_counter(config, counter, os.prefix);
                        }
                }
                break;