diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
index 8dbee832abd9..5b46b1d1a37c 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-record.txt
@@ -360,6 +360,13 @@ particular perf.data snapshot should be kept or not.
 
 Implies --timestamp-filename, --no-buildid and --no-buildid-cache.
 
+--dry-run::
+Parse options then exit. --dry-run can be used to detect errors in cmdline
+options.
+
+'perf record --dry-run -e' can act as a BPF script compiler if llvm.dump-obj
+in config file is set to true.
+
 SEE ALSO
 --------
 linkperf:perf-stat[1], linkperf:perf-list[1]
diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
index d4cf1b0c88f9..b1304ebc8779 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
@@ -1274,6 +1274,8 @@ static struct record record = {
 const char record_callchain_help[] = CALLCHAIN_RECORD_HELP
 	"\n\t\t\t\tDefault: fp";
 
+static bool dry_run;
+
 /*
  * XXX Will stay a global variable till we fix builtin-script.c to stop messing
  * with it and switch to use the library functions in perf_evlist that came
@@ -1393,6 +1395,8 @@ struct option __record_options[] = {
 		    "append timestamp to output filename"),
 	OPT_BOOLEAN(0, "switch-output", &record.switch_output,
 		    "Switch output when receive SIGUSR2"),
+	OPT_BOOLEAN(0, "dry-run", &dry_run,
+		    "Parse options then exit"),
 	OPT_END()
 };
 
@@ -1462,6 +1466,9 @@ int cmd_record(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix __maybe_unused)
 	if (err)
 		return err;
 
+	if (dry_run)
+		return 0;
+
 	err = bpf__setup_stdout(rec->evlist);
 	if (err) {
 		bpf__strerror_setup_stdout(rec->evlist, err, errbuf, sizeof(errbuf));