evlist__for_each_safe(evlist, n, pos) {
                list_del_init(&pos->node);
+               pos->evlist = NULL;
                perf_evsel__delete(pos);
        }
 
 
 void perf_evlist__add(struct perf_evlist *evlist, struct perf_evsel *entry)
 {
+       entry->evlist = evlist;
        list_add_tail(&entry->node, &evlist->entries);
        entry->idx = evlist->nr_entries;
        entry->tracking = !entry->idx;
 
        evsel->leader      = evsel;
        evsel->unit        = "";
        evsel->scale       = 1.0;
+       evsel->evlist      = NULL;
        INIT_LIST_HEAD(&evsel->node);
        INIT_LIST_HEAD(&evsel->config_terms);
        perf_evsel__object.init(evsel);
 void perf_evsel__exit(struct perf_evsel *evsel)
 {
        assert(list_empty(&evsel->node));
+       assert(evsel->evlist == NULL);
        perf_evsel__free_fd(evsel);
        perf_evsel__free_id(evsel);
        perf_evsel__free_config_terms(evsel);
 
 
 /** struct perf_evsel - event selector
  *
+ * @evlist - evlist this evsel is in, if it is in one.
+ * @node - To insert it into evlist->entries or in other list_heads, say in
+ *         the event parsing routines.
  * @name - Can be set to retain the original event name passed by the user,
  *         so that when showing results in tools such as 'perf stat', we
  *         show the name used, not some alias.
  */
 struct perf_evsel {
        struct list_head        node;
+       struct perf_evlist      *evlist;
        struct perf_event_attr  attr;
        char                    *filter;
        struct xyarray          *fd;