diff --git a/include/lo2s/perf/event_reader.hpp b/include/lo2s/perf/event_reader.hpp
index dd335edc..1a1a1bc1 100644
--- a/include/lo2s/perf/event_reader.hpp
+++ b/include/lo2s/perf/event_reader.hpp
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include <lo2s/log.hpp>
 #include <lo2s/mmap.hpp>
 #include <lo2s/platform.hpp>
+#include <lo2s/shared_memory.hpp>
 #include <lo2s/util.hpp>
 
 #include <algorithm>
@@ -149,6 +150,22 @@ class EventReader
         // struct sample_id sample_id;
     };
 
+    EventReader() = default;
+
+    EventReader(EventReader<T>&) = delete;
+    EventReader& operator=(EventReader<T>&) = delete;
+
+    EventReader(EventReader<T>&& other)
+    {
+        std::swap(this->shmem_, other.shmem_);
+    }
+
+    EventReader& operator=(EventReader&& other)
+    {
+        std::swap(this->shmem_, other.shmem_);
+        return *this;
+    }
+
     ~EventReader()
     {
         if (lost_samples > 0)
@@ -165,16 +182,17 @@ class EventReader
 
         mmap_pages_ = config().mmap_pages;
 
-        base = mmap(NULL, (mmap_pages_ + 1) * get_page_size(), PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED,
-                    fd, 0);
-        // Should not be necessary to check for nullptr, but we've seen it!
-        if (base == MAP_FAILED || base == nullptr)
+        try
+        {
+            shmem_ = SharedMemory(fd, (mmap_pages_ + 1) * get_page_size());
+        }
+        catch (const std::system_error& e)
         {
             Log::error() << "mapping memory for recording events failed. You can try "
                             "to decrease the buffer size with the -m flag, or try to increase "
                             "the amount of mappable memory by increasing /proc/sys/kernel/"
                             "perf_event_mlock_kb";
-            throw_errno();
+            throw;
         }
     }
 
@@ -305,12 +323,12 @@ class EventReader
 private:
     const struct perf_event_mmap_page* header() const
     {
-        return (const struct perf_event_mmap_page*)base;
+        return shmem_.as<struct perf_event_mmap_page>();
     }
 
     struct perf_event_mmap_page* header()
     {
-        return (struct perf_event_mmap_page*)base;
+        return shmem_.as<struct perf_event_mmap_page>();
     }
 
     uint64_t data_head() const
@@ -341,7 +359,7 @@ class EventReader
     {
         // workaround for old kernels
         // assert(header()->data_offset == get_page_size());
-        return reinterpret_cast<std::byte*>(base) + get_page_size();
+        return shmem_.as<std::byte>() + get_page_size();
     }
 
 public:
@@ -373,7 +391,7 @@ class EventReader
 
 private:
     int fd_;
-    void* base;
+    SharedMemory shmem_;
     std::byte event_copy[PERF_SAMPLE_MAX_SIZE] __attribute__((aligned(8)));
 };
 
diff --git a/include/lo2s/shared_memory.hpp b/include/lo2s/shared_memory.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ee307439
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/lo2s/shared_memory.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,119 @@
+/*
+ * This file is part of the lo2s software.
+ * Linux OTF2 sampling
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2016,
+ *    Technische Universitaet Dresden, Germany
+ *
+ * lo2s is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * lo2s is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with lo2s.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <lo2s/error.hpp>
+
+#include <utility>
+
+extern "C"
+{
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <sys/mman.h>
+}
+
+namespace lo2s
+{
+class SharedMemory
+{
+public:
+    SharedMemory() : addr_(nullptr), size_(0)
+    {
+    }
+
+    SharedMemory(SharedMemory&) = delete;
+    SharedMemory& operator=(SharedMemory&) = delete;
+
+    SharedMemory(SharedMemory&& other)
+    {
+        addr_ = std::move(other.addr_);
+        size_ = std::move(other.size_);
+
+        other.addr_ = nullptr;
+    }
+
+    SharedMemory& operator=(SharedMemory&& other)
+    {
+        unmap();
+        addr_ = std::move(other.addr_);
+        size_ = std::move(other.size_);
+
+        other.addr_ = nullptr;
+
+        return *this;
+    }
+
+    SharedMemory(int fd, size_t size, size_t offset = 0, void* location = nullptr) : size_(size)
+    {
+        assert(offset % get_page_size() == 0);
+
+        if (location == nullptr)
+        {
+            addr_ = mmap(nullptr, size, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, offset);
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            addr_ =
+                mmap(location, size, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED | MAP_FIXED, fd, offset);
+        }
+
+        if (addr_ == MAP_FAILED)
+        {
+            throw_errno();
+        }
+    }
+
+    template <typename T>
+    T* as()
+    {
+        return reinterpret_cast<T*>(addr_);
+    }
+
+    template <typename T>
+    const T* as() const
+    {
+        return reinterpret_cast<const T*>(addr_);
+    }
+
+    ~SharedMemory()
+    {
+        unmap();
+    }
+
+    size_t size()
+    {
+        return size_;
+    }
+
+private:
+    void unmap()
+    {
+        if (addr_ != nullptr)
+        {
+            munmap(addr_, size_);
+        }
+    }
+
+    void* addr_ = nullptr;
+    size_t size_ = 0;
+};
+} // namespace lo2s