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From: Jacob Pan <jacob.pan@linux.microsoft.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	"iommu@lists.linux.dev" <iommu@lists.linux.dev>,
	Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@nvidia.com>,
	Alex Williamson <alex@shazbot.org>,
	Joerg Roedel <joro@8bytes.org>,
	David Matlack <dmatlack@google.com>,
	Nicolin Chen <nicolinc@nvidia.com>,
	"Tian, Kevin" <kevin.tian@intel.com>, Yi Liu <yi.l.liu@intel.com>,
	Baolu Lu <baolu.lu@linux.intel.com>
Cc: skhawaja@google.com, pasha.tatashin@soleen.com,
	Jacob Pan <jacob.pan@linux.microsoft.com>,
	Jean Philippe-Brucker <jean-philippe@linaro.org>,
	Robin Murphy <robin.murphy@arm.com>
Subject: [PATCH 11/11] Doc: Update VFIO NOIOMMU mode
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:52:47 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260227175247.26103-12-jacob.pan@linux.microsoft.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260227175247.26103-1-jacob.pan@linux.microsoft.com>

Document the NOIOMMU mode with newly added cdev support under iommufd.

Signed-off-by: Jacob Pan <jacob.pan@linux.microsoft.com>
---
 Documentation/driver-api/vfio.rst | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 42 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/vfio.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/vfio.rst
index 2a21a42c9386..d1ee13dc6e98 100644
--- a/Documentation/driver-api/vfio.rst
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/vfio.rst
@@ -275,8 +275,6 @@ in a VFIO group.
 With CONFIG_VFIO_DEVICE_CDEV=y the user can now acquire a device fd
 by directly opening a character device /dev/vfio/devices/vfioX where
 "X" is the number allocated uniquely by VFIO for registered devices.
-cdev interface does not support noiommu devices, so user should use
-the legacy group interface if noiommu is wanted.
 
 The cdev only works with IOMMUFD.  Both VFIO drivers and applications
 must adapt to the new cdev security model which requires using
@@ -370,6 +368,48 @@ IOMMUFD IOAS/HWPT to enable userspace DMA::
 
 	/* Other device operations as stated in "VFIO Usage Example" */
 
+VFIO NOIOMMU mode
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+VFIO also supports a no-IOMMU mode, intended for usages where unsafe DMA can
+be performed by userspace drivers w/o physical IOMMU protection. This mode
+is controlled by the parameter:
+
+/sys/module/vfio/parameters/enable_unsafe_noiommu_mode
+
+Upon enabling this mode, with an assigned device, the user will be presented
+with a VFIO group and device file, e.g.
+
+/dev/vfio/
+|-- devices
+|   `-- noiommu-vfio0	/* VFIO device cdev */
+|-- noiommu-0		/* VFIO group */
+`-- vfio
+
+The capabilities vary depending on the device programming interface and kernel
+configuration used. The following table summarizes the differences:
+
++-------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
+| Feature           | VFIO group          | VFIO device cdev   |
++===================+=====================+=====================+
+| VFIO device UAPI  | Yes                 | Yes                |
++-------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
+| VFIO container    | No                  | No                 |
++-------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
+| IOMMUFD IOAS      | No                  | Yes*               |
++-------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
+Note that the VFIO container case includes IOMMUFD provided VFIO compatibility
+interfaces when either CONFIG_VFIO_CONTAINER or CONFIG_IOMMUFD_VFIO_CONTAINER is
+enabled.
+
+* IOMMUFD UAPI is available for VFIO device cdev to pin and map user memory with
+the ability to retrieve physical addresses for DMA command submission.
+
+A new IOMMUFD ioctl IOMMU_IOAS_GET_PA is added to retrieve the physical address
+for a given user virtual address. Note that IOMMU_IOAS_MAP_FIXED_IOVA flag is
+ignored in no-IOMMU mode since there is no physical DMA remapping hardware.
+tools/testing/selftests/vfio/vfio_iommufd_noiommu_test.c provides an example of
+using this ioctl in no-IOMMU mode.
+
 VFIO User API
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-- 
2.34.1


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-02-27 17:52 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 21+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-02-27 17:52 [PATCH 00/11] iommufd: Enable noiommu mode for cdev Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 01/11] iommufd: Support a HWPT without an iommu driver for noiommu Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 02/11] iommufd: Move igroup allocation to a function Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 03/11] iommufd: Allow binding to a noiommu device Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 04/11] iommufd: Add an ioctl IOMMU_IOAS_GET_PA to query PA from IOVA Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 05/11] vfio: Allow null group for noiommu without containers Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 06/11] vfio: Introduce and set noiommu flag on vfio_device Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 07/11] vfio: Update noiommu device detection logic for cdev Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 08/11] vfio: Enable cdev noiommu mode under iommufd Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 22:03   ` kernel test robot
2026-02-28  0:18   ` kernel test robot
2026-02-28  0:35     ` Jason Gunthorpe
2026-03-05 23:26       ` Jacob Pan
2026-03-05 23:38         ` Jason Gunthorpe
2026-03-12 16:33           ` Jacob Pan
2026-02-28  0:29   ` kernel test robot
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 09/11] vfio:selftest: Handle VFIO noiommu cdev Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` [PATCH 10/11] selftests/vfio: Add iommufd noiommu mode selftest for cdev Jacob Pan
2026-02-27 17:52 ` Jacob Pan [this message]
2026-03-03  0:35 ` [PATCH 00/11] iommufd: Enable noiommu mode " Jason Gunthorpe
2026-03-03 19:13   ` Jacob Pan

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