[PATCH] selftests/resctrl: Skip L3_CAT when no exclusive cache portion exists

From: Richard Cheng

Date: Mon May 25 2026 - 22:43:06 EST


L3_CAT measures cache isolation, which requires at least one ache bit
not shared with non-CPU agents, i.e. cbm_mask & ~shareable_bits != 0 .
On MPAM, shareable_bits == cbm_mask is a legitimate state, so there
might be situations that no bit can be reported as exclusive.

Previously get_mask_no_shareable() does the check inside cat_run_test(),
which returns -1 silently and surfaced as a failure for arm64 MPAM.

Implement cat_feature_check() to run the same check at feature-check
time, it prints a diagnostic and return false so the test case itself
can know when to skip.

Signed-off-by: Richard Cheng <icheng@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/testing/selftests/resctrl/cat_test.c | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/resctrl/cat_test.c b/tools/testing/selftests/resctrl/cat_test.c
index 37ca70523ed2..6a25efa59837 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/resctrl/cat_test.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/resctrl/cat_test.c
@@ -383,11 +383,32 @@ static bool noncont_cat_feature_check(const struct resctrl_test *test)
return resource_info_file_exists(test->resource, "sparse_masks");
}

+static bool cat_feature_check(const struct resctrl_test *test)
+{
+ unsigned long mask;
+
+ if (!test_resource_feature_check(test))
+ return false;
+
+ /*
+ * The CAT isolation measurement needs a cache portion that no
+ * other agent shares. On MPAM the kernel may legitimately
+ * report all bits as shareable, skip if that the case.
+ */
+ if (get_mask_no_shareable(test->resource, &mask)) {
+ ksft_print_msg("All %s bits are shareable; cannot measure CAT isolation\n",
+ test->resource);
+ return false;
+ }
+
+ return true;
+}
+
struct resctrl_test l3_cat_test = {
.name = "L3_CAT",
.group = "CAT",
.resource = "L3",
- .feature_check = test_resource_feature_check,
+ .feature_check = cat_feature_check,
.run_test = cat_run_test,
.cleanup = cat_test_cleanup,
};
--
2.43.0