diff --git a/tools/perf/Makefile.config b/tools/perf/Makefile.config
index 9c5aa14a44cf..78411252b72a 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Makefile.config
+++ b/tools/perf/Makefile.config
@@ -680,6 +680,10 @@ ifdef BUILD_BPF_SKEL
   CFLAGS += -DHAVE_BPF_SKEL
 endif
 
+ifndef GEN_VMLINUX_H
+  VMLINUX_H=$(src-perf)/util/bpf_skel/vmlinux/vmlinux.h
+endif
+
 dwarf-post-unwind := 1
 dwarf-post-unwind-text := BUG
 
diff --git a/tools/perf/Makefile.perf b/tools/perf/Makefile.perf
index b1e62a621f92..a49eded5cc4f 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Makefile.perf
+++ b/tools/perf/Makefile.perf
@@ -132,6 +132,8 @@ include ../scripts/utilities.mak
 # Define EXTRA_TESTS to enable building extra tests useful mainly to perf
 # developers, such as:
 #	x86 instruction decoder - new instructions test
+#
+# Define GEN_VMLINUX_H to generate vmlinux.h from the BTF.
 
 # As per kernel Makefile, avoid funny character set dependencies
 unexport LC_ALL
@@ -1084,7 +1086,21 @@ $(BPFTOOL): | $(SKEL_TMP_OUT)
 	$(Q)CFLAGS= $(MAKE) -C ../bpf/bpftool \
 		OUTPUT=$(SKEL_TMP_OUT)/ bootstrap
 
-$(SKEL_TMP_OUT)/%.bpf.o: util/bpf_skel/%.bpf.c $(LIBBPF) | $(SKEL_TMP_OUT)
+VMLINUX_BTF_PATHS ?= $(if $(O),$(O)/vmlinux)				\
+		     $(if $(KBUILD_OUTPUT),$(KBUILD_OUTPUT)/vmlinux)	\
+		     ../../vmlinux					\
+		     /sys/kernel/btf/vmlinux				\
+		     /boot/vmlinux-$(shell uname -r)
+VMLINUX_BTF ?= $(abspath $(firstword $(wildcard $(VMLINUX_BTF_PATHS))))
+
+$(SKEL_OUT)/vmlinux.h: $(VMLINUX_BTF) $(BPFTOOL)
+ifeq ($(VMLINUX_H),)
+	$(QUIET_GEN)$(BPFTOOL) btf dump file $< format c > $@
+else
+	$(Q)cp "$(VMLINUX_H)" $@
+endif
+
+$(SKEL_TMP_OUT)/%.bpf.o: util/bpf_skel/%.bpf.c $(LIBBPF) $(SKEL_OUT)/vmlinux.h | $(SKEL_TMP_OUT)
 	$(QUIET_CLANG)$(CLANG) -g -O2 -target bpf -Wall -Werror $(BPF_INCLUDE) $(TOOLS_UAPI_INCLUDE) \
 	  -c $(filter util/bpf_skel/%.bpf.c,$^) -o $@
 
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/bpf_skel/.gitignore b/tools/perf/util/bpf_skel/.gitignore
index 7a1c832825de..cd01455e1b53 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/bpf_skel/.gitignore
+++ b/tools/perf/util/bpf_skel/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
 .tmp
 *.skel.h
+vmlinux.h
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/bpf_skel/vmlinux.h b/tools/perf/util/bpf_skel/vmlinux/vmlinux.h
similarity index 100%
rename from tools/perf/util/bpf_skel/vmlinux.h
rename to tools/perf/util/bpf_skel/vmlinux/vmlinux.h