diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/oelib/patch.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/oelib/patch.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4cbfef4ce6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/oelib/patch.py
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#
+# Copyright OpenEmbedded Contributors
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+#
+
+import sys
+from unittest.case import TestCase
+
+import oe.patch
+
+
+class TestRunCmd(TestCase):
+    def test_runcmd_preserves_argv_elements(self):
+        output = oe.patch.runcmd([
+            sys.executable,
+            "-c",
+            "import sys; print(sys.argv[1])",
+            "value with spaces;$(false)*",
+        ])
+        self.assertEqual(output, "value with spaces;$(false)*\n")
+
+    def test_runcmd_allows_explicit_shell(self):
+        output = oe.patch.runcmd([
+            "sh", "-c", 'printf "%s" "$1"', "sh", "shell value",
+        ])
+        self.assertEqual(output, "shell value")
+
+    def test_runcmd_reports_exit_status(self):
+        with self.assertRaises(oe.patch.CmdError) as ctx:
+            oe.patch.runcmd([
+                sys.executable,
+                "-c",
+                "raise SystemExit(7)",
+            ])
+
+        self.assertEqual(ctx.exception.status, 7)
+
+    def test_runcmd_wraps_exec_failure(self):
+        with self.assertRaises(oe.patch.CmdError) as ctx:
+            oe.patch.runcmd([
+                "/definitely-not-an-existing-executable",
+            ])
+
+        self.assertEqual(ctx.exception.status, 127)