bool                    force;
        bool                    vfs_getname;
        int                     trace_pgfaults;
+       char                    *perfconfig_events;
        struct {
                struct ordered_events   data;
                u64                     last;
        int err = 0;
 
        if (!strcmp(var, "trace.add_events")) {
-               struct option o = OPT_CALLBACK('e', "event", &trace->evlist, "event",
-                                              "event selector. use 'perf list' to list available events",
-                                              parse_events_option);
-               /*
-                * We can't propagate parse_event_option() return, as it is 1
-                * for failure while perf_config() expects -1.
-                */
-               if (parse_events_option(&o, value, 0))
-                       err = -1;
+               trace->perfconfig_events = strdup(value);
+               if (trace->perfconfig_events == NULL) {
+                       pr_err("Not enough memory for %s\n", "trace.add_events");
+                       return -1;
+               }
        } else if (!strcmp(var, "trace.show_timestamp")) {
                trace->show_tstamp = perf_config_bool(var, value);
        } else if (!strcmp(var, "trace.show_duration")) {
 
        argc = parse_options_subcommand(argc, argv, trace_options, trace_subcommands,
                                 trace_usage, PARSE_OPT_STOP_AT_NON_OPTION);
+       /*
+        * Now that we have --verbose figured out, lets see if we need to parse
+        * events from .perfconfig, so that if those events fail parsing, say some
+        * BPF program fails, then we'll be able to use --verbose to see what went
+        * wrong in more detail.
+        */
+       if (trace.perfconfig_events != NULL) {
+               struct parse_events_error parse_err = { .idx = 0, };
+
+               err = parse_events(trace.evlist, trace.perfconfig_events, &parse_err);
+               if (err) {
+                       parse_events_print_error(&parse_err, trace.perfconfig_events);
+                       goto out;
+               }
+       }
 
        if ((nr_cgroups || trace.cgroup) && !trace.opts.target.system_wide) {
                usage_with_options_msg(trace_usage, trace_options,
        if (output_name != NULL)
                fclose(trace.output);
 out:
+       zfree(&trace.perfconfig_events);
        return err;
 }