[PATCH] perf pmu: Skip test on Arm64 when #slots is zero

From: Leo Yan

Date: Fri Apr 10 2026 - 06:48:32 EST


Some Arm64 PMUs expose 'caps/slots' as 0 when the slot count is not
implemented, tool_pmu__read_event() currently treats that as a read
failure, so metrics that reference #slots are reported as syntax
error.

Since the commit 3a61fd866ef9 ("perf expr: Return -EINVAL for syntax
error in expr__find_ids()"), these syntax errors are populated as
failures and make the PMU metric test fail:

9.3: Parsing of PMU event table metrics:
--- start ---
...

Found metric 'backend_bound'
metric expr 100 * (stall_slot_backend / (#slots * cpu_cycles)) for backend_bound
parsing metric: 100 * (stall_slot_backend / (#slots * cpu_cycles))
Failure to read '#slots'
literal: #slots = nan
syntax error
Fail to parse metric or group `backend_bound'

...
---- end(-1) ----
9.3: Parsing of PMU event table metrics : FAILED!

This commit introduces a new function is_expected_broken_metric() to
identify broken metrics, and treats metrics containing "#slots" as
broken when #slots == 0 on Arm64 platforms.

Fixes: 3a61fd866ef9 ("perf expr: Return -EINVAL for syntax error in expr__find_ids()")
Signed-off-by: Leo Yan <leo.yan@xxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/tests/pmu-events.c | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/tests/pmu-events.c b/tools/perf/tests/pmu-events.c
index a997168621688007c85495e2d9f6f459c2471516..6a68d46a4fcd96b7ce46272af36fcb5590939505 100644
--- a/tools/perf/tests/pmu-events.c
+++ b/tools/perf/tests/pmu-events.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
#include "util/expr.h"
#include "util/hashmap.h"
#include "util/parse-events.h"
+#include "util/tool_pmu.h"
#include "metricgroup.h"
#include "stat.h"

@@ -817,6 +818,26 @@ struct metric {
struct metric_ref metric_ref;
};

+static bool is_expected_broken_metric(const struct pmu_metric *pm)
+{
+ if (!strcmp(pm->metric_name, "M1") || !strcmp(pm->metric_name, "M2") ||
+ !strcmp(pm->metric_name, "M3"))
+ return true;
+
+#if defined(__aarch64__)
+ /*
+ * Arm64 platforms may return “#slots == 0”, which is treated as a
+ * syntax error by the parser. Don't test these metrics when running
+ * on such platforms.
+ */
+ if (!strstr(pm->metric_name, "#slots") &&
+ !tool_pmu__cpu_slots_per_cycle())
+ return true;
+#endif
+
+ return false;
+}
+
static int test__parsing_callback(const struct pmu_metric *pm,
const struct pmu_metrics_table *table,
void *data)
@@ -852,8 +873,7 @@ static int test__parsing_callback(const struct pmu_metric *pm,

err = metricgroup__parse_groups_test(evlist, table, pm->metric_name);
if (err) {
- if (!strcmp(pm->metric_name, "M1") || !strcmp(pm->metric_name, "M2") ||
- !strcmp(pm->metric_name, "M3")) {
+ if (is_expected_broken_metric(pm)) {
(*failures)--;
pr_debug("Expected broken metric %s skipping\n", pm->metric_name);
err = 0;

---
base-commit: 4cf1f549bbcdfea9c20df52994bb342677472dcd
change-id: 20260408-perf_fix_pmu_metrics_test-73c4dedc8585

Best regards,
--
Leo Yan <leo.yan@xxxxxxx>