diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_fops.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_fops.c
index 476408b638e3..d85af1b2a238 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_fops.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_fops.c
@@ -683,7 +683,9 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(drm_poll);
  * This function prepares the passed in event for eventual delivery. If the event
  * doesn't get delivered (because the IOCTL fails later on, before queuing up
  * anything) then the even must be cancelled and freed using
- * drm_event_cancel_free().
+ * drm_event_cancel_free(). Successfully initialized events should be sent out
+ * using drm_send_event() or drm_send_event_locked() to signal completion of the
+ * asynchronous event to userspace.
  *
  * If callers embedded @p into a larger structure it must be allocated with
  * kmalloc and @p must be the first member element.
@@ -739,3 +741,41 @@ void drm_event_cancel_free(struct drm_device *dev,
 	p->destroy(p);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(drm_event_cancel_free);
+
+/**
+ * drm_send_event_locked - send DRM event to file descriptor
+ * @dev: DRM device
+ * @e: DRM event to deliver
+ *
+ * This function sends the event @e, initialized with drm_event_reserve_init(),
+ * to its associated userspace DRM file. Callers must already hold
+ * dev->event_lock, see drm_send_event() for the unlocked version.
+ */
+void drm_send_event_locked(struct drm_device *dev, struct drm_pending_event *e)
+{
+	assert_spin_locked(&dev->event_lock);
+
+	list_add_tail(&e->link,
+		      &e->file_priv->event_list);
+	wake_up_interruptible(&e->file_priv->event_wait);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(drm_send_event_locked);
+
+/**
+ * drm_send_event - send DRM event to file descriptor
+ * @dev: DRM device
+ * @e: DRM event to deliver
+ *
+ * This function sends the event @e, initialized with drm_event_reserve_init(),
+ * to its associated userspace DRM file. This function acquires dev->event_lock,
+ * see drm_send_event_locked() for callers which already hold this lock.
+ */
+void drm_send_event(struct drm_device *dev, struct drm_pending_event *e)
+{
+	unsigned long irqflags;
+
+	spin_lock_irqsave(&dev->event_lock, irqflags);
+	drm_send_event_locked(dev, e);
+	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&dev->event_lock, irqflags);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(drm_send_event);
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_irq.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_irq.c
index a70b29909974..3fe8dbff6058 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_irq.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_irq.c
@@ -983,15 +983,12 @@ static void send_vblank_event(struct drm_device *dev,
 		struct drm_pending_vblank_event *e,
 		unsigned long seq, struct timeval *now)
 {
-	assert_spin_locked(&dev->event_lock);
-
 	e->event.sequence = seq;
 	e->event.tv_sec = now->tv_sec;
 	e->event.tv_usec = now->tv_usec;
 
-	list_add_tail(&e->base.link,
-		      &e->base.file_priv->event_list);
-	wake_up_interruptible(&e->base.file_priv->event_wait);
+	drm_send_event_locked(dev, &e->base);
+
 	trace_drm_vblank_event_delivered(e->base.pid, e->pipe,
 					 e->event.sequence);
 }
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/exynos/exynos_drm_g2d.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/exynos/exynos_drm_g2d.c
index 82e7f95dfed9..db56c8259f18 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/exynos/exynos_drm_g2d.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/exynos/exynos_drm_g2d.c
@@ -893,10 +893,7 @@ static void g2d_finish_event(struct g2d_data *g2d, u32 cmdlist_no)
 	e->event.tv_usec = now.tv_usec;
 	e->event.cmdlist_no = cmdlist_no;
 
-	spin_lock_irqsave(&drm_dev->event_lock, flags);
-	list_move_tail(&e->base.link, &e->base.file_priv->event_list);
-	wake_up_interruptible(&e->base.file_priv->event_wait);
-	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&drm_dev->event_lock, flags);
+	drm_send_event(dev, &e->base);
 }
 
 static irqreturn_t g2d_irq_handler(int irq, void *dev_id)
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/exynos/exynos_drm_ipp.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/exynos/exynos_drm_ipp.c
index c8819c05e2dd..1f6a6c1881d6 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/exynos/exynos_drm_ipp.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/exynos/exynos_drm_ipp.c
@@ -1520,10 +1520,7 @@ static int ipp_send_event(struct exynos_drm_ippdrv *ippdrv,
 	for_each_ipp_ops(i)
 		e->event.buf_id[i] = tbuf_id[i];
 
-	spin_lock_irqsave(&drm_dev->event_lock, flags);
-	list_move_tail(&e->base.link, &e->base.file_priv->event_list);
-	wake_up_interruptible(&e->base.file_priv->event_wait);
-	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&drm_dev->event_lock, flags);
+	drm_send_event(dev, &e->base);
 	mutex_unlock(&c_node->event_lock);
 
 	DRM_DEBUG_KMS("done cmd[%d]prop_id[%d]buf_id[%d]\n",
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_fence.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_fence.c
index eda93bf52a6e..e0edf149d9d5 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_fence.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_fence.c
@@ -880,9 +880,8 @@ static void vmw_event_fence_action_seq_passed(struct vmw_fence_action *action)
 	}
 
 	list_del_init(&eaction->fpriv_head);
-	list_add_tail(&eaction->event->link, &file_priv->event_list);
 	eaction->event = NULL;
-	wake_up_all(&file_priv->event_wait);
+	drm_send_event_locked(dev, eaction->event);
 	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&dev->event_lock, irq_flags);
 }
 
diff --git a/include/drm/drmP.h b/include/drm/drmP.h
index ad4d0a31294d..ae73abf5c2cf 100644
--- a/include/drm/drmP.h
+++ b/include/drm/drmP.h
@@ -932,6 +932,8 @@ int drm_event_reserve_init(struct drm_device *dev,
 			   struct drm_event *e);
 void drm_event_cancel_free(struct drm_device *dev,
 			   struct drm_pending_event *p);
+void drm_send_event_locked(struct drm_device *dev, struct drm_pending_event *e);
+void drm_send_event(struct drm_device *dev, struct drm_pending_event *e);
 
 /* Misc. IOCTL support (drm_ioctl.c) */
 int drm_noop(struct drm_device *dev, void *data,
