diff --git a/tools/perf/util/string.c b/tools/perf/util/string.c
index 2270435..0977cf4 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/string.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/string.c
@@ -127,3 +127,104 @@
 out:
 	return length;
 }
+
+/*
+ * Helper function for splitting a string into an argv-like array.
+ * originaly copied from lib/argv_split.c
+ */
+static const char *skip_sep(const char *cp)
+{
+	while (*cp && isspace(*cp))
+		cp++;
+
+	return cp;
+}
+
+static const char *skip_arg(const char *cp)
+{
+	while (*cp && !isspace(*cp))
+		cp++;
+
+	return cp;
+}
+
+static int count_argc(const char *str)
+{
+	int count = 0;
+
+	while (*str) {
+		str = skip_sep(str);
+		if (*str) {
+			count++;
+			str = skip_arg(str);
+		}
+	}
+
+	return count;
+}
+
+/**
+ * argv_free - free an argv
+ * @argv - the argument vector to be freed
+ *
+ * Frees an argv and the strings it points to.
+ */
+void argv_free(char **argv)
+{
+	char **p;
+	for (p = argv; *p; p++)
+		free(*p);
+
+	free(argv);
+}
+
+/**
+ * argv_split - split a string at whitespace, returning an argv
+ * @str: the string to be split
+ * @argcp: returned argument count
+ *
+ * Returns an array of pointers to strings which are split out from
+ * @str.  This is performed by strictly splitting on white-space; no
+ * quote processing is performed.  Multiple whitespace characters are
+ * considered to be a single argument separator.  The returned array
+ * is always NULL-terminated.  Returns NULL on memory allocation
+ * failure.
+ */
+char **argv_split(const char *str, int *argcp)
+{
+	int argc = count_argc(str);
+	char **argv = zalloc(sizeof(*argv) * (argc+1));
+	char **argvp;
+
+	if (argv == NULL)
+		goto out;
+
+	if (argcp)
+		*argcp = argc;
+
+	argvp = argv;
+
+	while (*str) {
+		str = skip_sep(str);
+
+		if (*str) {
+			const char *p = str;
+			char *t;
+
+			str = skip_arg(str);
+
+			t = strndup(p, str-p);
+			if (t == NULL)
+				goto fail;
+			*argvp++ = t;
+		}
+	}
+	*argvp = NULL;
+
+out:
+	return argv;
+
+fail:
+	argv_free(argv);
+	return NULL;
+}