--driver can now be used to specify a specific driver to bind to the device being detached from the host driver (e.g. vfio-pci-igbvf), not just the *type* of driver (e.g. "vfio" or "xen", which are unnecessary anyway, since they are implicit in which hypervisor driver is in use) Signed-off-by: Laine Stump <laine(a)redhat.com&gt; --- docs/manpages/virsh.rst | 25 +++++++++++++++++-------- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/manpages/virsh.rst b/docs/manpages/virsh.rst index f4e5a0bd62..ec7c823602 100644 --- a/docs/manpages/virsh.rst +++ b/docs/manpages/virsh.rst @@ -5388,14 +5388,23 @@ nodedev-detach nodedev-detach nodedev [--driver backend_driver] -Detach *nodedev* from the host, so that it can safely be used by -guests via <hostdev> passthrough. This is reversed with -``nodedev-reattach``, and is done automatically for managed devices. - -Different backend drivers expect the device to be bound to different -dummy devices. For example, QEMU's "vfio" backend driver expects the -device to be bound to vfio-pci. The *--driver* parameter can be used -to specify the desired backend driver. +Detach *nodedev* from the host driver and bind it to a special driver +that provides the API needed by the hypervisor for assigning the +device to a virtual machine (using <hostdev> in the domain XML +definition). This is reversed with ``nodedev-reattach``, and is done +automatically by the hypervisor driver for managed devices (those +devices with "managed='yes'" in their XML definition). + +Different hypervisors expect the device being assigned to be bound to +different drivers. For example, QEMU's "vfio" backend requires the +device to be bound to the driver "vfio-pci" or to a "VFIO variant" +driver (this is a driver that supports the full API provided by +vfio-pci, plus some other APIs to support things like live +migration). The *--driver* parameter can be used to specify a +particular driver (e.g. a device-specific VFIO variant driver) the +device should be bound to. When *--driver* is omitted, the default +driver for the hypervisor is used ("vfio-pci" for QEMU, "pciback" for +Xen). nodedev-dumpxml -- 2.41.0