VFIO_GROUP_GET_DEVICE_FD(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 VFIO_GROUP_GET_DEVICE_FD(9) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual ✨ and like... we're doing VFIO_GROUP_GET_DEVICE_FD(9) today, no big deal, just a little ioctl that hands you a whole device 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

VFIO_GROUP_GET_DEVICE_FD — literally defined as _IOW(VFIO_TYPE, VFIO_BASE + 6, char), that's the whole vibe 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

VFIO_GROUP_GET_DEVICE_FD

that's it. that's the synopsis. icon behavior honestly 👑

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so picture this: you call it and it returns a brand new file descriptor for the device object that the string you handed it describes 🫶

and that string? it's gotta match a device listed in the devices subdirectory of the IOMMU group sysfs entry — like, no making things up, the name has to be a real one that's actually in there fr fr 🔍

also the group containing that device must already be added to this context, so like... do your homework first, bestie, the group has to be in there before you come asking for fds 🙈

🎀 RETURN 🎀

  • on success: a new file descriptor 🎉 slay
  • on failure: -errno 😭 that's the negative errno, it's giving "something went wrong and it's telling you in the most unix way possible"

Availability: when attached to container 💖 (that's the condition babes, that's when it's available)

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

okay so the kernel file for this is ./include/uapi/linux/vfio.h and here's the whole little friend group 👯‍♀️:

like, go read them, they're all part of the same storyline iykyk 📚✨

and that's the tea, bestie 🍓 this one comes from ./include/uapi/linux, dated October 2026, and it's VFIO_GROUP_GET_DEVICE_FD(9) all the way through — mwah, go get your file descriptors 💜🧚‍♀️

📦 where this page comes from