linux-drivers/
drivers/vfio/pci

VFIO PCI device passthrough

Generic framework that lets a host hand a whole PCI or PCIe card — a GPU, NIC, NVMe drive, FPGA, or other accelerator — directly to a virtual machine or a userspace program with IOMMU-enforced isolation. It is the foundation of PCI device passthrough in QEMU/KVM and is heavily used in cloud, virtualization, and HPC environments on hardware still being sold in 2025.

keep conf=0.97 last_sold=2025 deploy=high replacement=none subsystem=vfio category=virtualization
97%

recommendation

It should stay because vfio-pci is the standard mechanism Linux uses to hand a physical PCIe card directly to a virtual machine or userspace program, and it underpins everyday GPU, NIC, and accelerator passthrough in QEMU/KVM cloud and HPC deployments. Upstream activity remained healthy through late 2025 and into 2026, with ongoing fixes and integration work around the newer iommufd backend rather than any move to retire the driver.

repository signals

48 files
19,788 source lines
321 commits, 5y
+19,235 / −5,591 lines added / removed, 5y
81 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 321 total · active in 58/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 0 commits · +0 −0 2021-05: 3 commits · +2 −8 2021-06: 2 commits · +25 −15 2021-07: 4 commits · +12 −13 2021-08: 17 commits · +855 −1,089 2021-09: 2 commits · +3 −12 2021-10: 1 commit · +175 −59 2021-11: 1 commit · +3 −2 2021-12: 1 commit · +9 −6 2022-01: 1 commit · +2 −0 2022-02: 7 commits · +1,095 −62 2022-03: 5 commits · +1,489 −24 2022-04: 2 commits · +75 −50 2022-05: 11 commits · +523 −259 2022-06: 7 commits · +95 −15 2022-07: 1 commit · +1 −1 2022-08: 13 commits · +881 −478 2022-09: 15 commits · +1,200 −147 2022-10: 1 commit · +1 −1 2022-11: 9 commits · +181 −25 2022-12: 16 commits · +1,114 −269 2023-01: 8 commits · +321 −78 2023-02: 1 commit · +2 −2 2023-03: 2 commits · +11 −10 2023-04: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-05: 13 commits · +307 −156 2023-06: 3 commits · +11 −7 2023-07: 7 commits · +169 −109 2023-08: 10 commits · +2,144 −66 2023-09: 10 commits · +322 −114 2023-10: 2 commits · +4 −0 2023-11: 10 commits · +336 −240 2023-12: 4 commits · +629 −28 2024-01: 2 commits · +2 −1 2024-02: 11 commits · +1,122 −110 2024-03: 8 commits · +223 −274 2024-04: 4 commits · +748 −34 2024-05: 3 commits · +107 −238 2024-06: 3 commits · +79 −62 2024-07: 2 commits · +1 −6 2024-08: 1 commit · +43 −17 2024-09: 2 commits · +1 −9 2024-10: 2 commits · +3 −1 2024-11: 9 commits · +2,291 −486 2024-12: 6 commits · +52 −39 2025-01: 8 commits · +211 −72 2025-02: 1 commit · +1 −5 2025-03: 4 commits · +16 −18 2025-04: 1 commit · +1 −1 2025-05: 12 commits · +403 −363 2025-06: 3 commits · +5 −8 2025-07: 5 commits · +31 −13 2025-08: 2 commits · +2 −2 2025-09: 5 commits · +17 −6 2025-10: 2 commits · +115 −39 2025-11: 19 commits · +1,514 −356 2025-12: 5 commits · +30 −13 2026-01: 8 commits · +168 −16 2026-02: 3 commits · +50 −54 2026-03: 1 commit · +2 −3 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. docs.kernel.org

    Upstream kernel documentation describes VFIO bus drivers such as vfio-pci as the userspace-facing framework for secure direct device access, especially VM device assignment and HPC/accelerator use cases.

  2. qemu.org

    Current QEMU documentation still documents vfio-pci as the standard assigned-PCI-device frontend, now with optional iommufd backend integration rather than replacement of the vfio-pci driver itself.

  3. spinics.net

    Mailing-list traffic in April 2026 shows active vfio/pci review and bug-fix discussion, indicating ongoing maintenance rather than removal.

  4. spinics.net

    Mailing-list traffic in November 2025 shows vfio/pci fixes being applied to the vfio next branch for v6.19, confirming active upstream development.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Local shell inspection shows this is real driver code (`pci_register_driver`, Kconfig entry 'Generic VFIO support for any PCI device') and local git history shows many recent substantive commits through 2026-03-23, so it is not dormant. URLs were obtained via web search: kernel docs (`turn0search0`), QEMU vfio-iommufd docs (`turn1search1`), and spinics mailing-list archive hits for recent vfio/pci patch traffic (`turn3search6`, `turn3search5`). No removal/deprecation series was found; current docs instead point to backend evolution around iommufd while vfio-pci remains the front-end for PCI passthrough. Because vfio-pci is a generic passthrough driver for still-sold PCIe devices used in virtualization/cloud/HPC, deployments remain high and there is no direct replacement driver for the same role.