diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/devices/vfio.rst b/Documentation/virt/kvm/devices/vfio.rst
index 08b544212638..c549143bb891 100644
--- a/Documentation/virt/kvm/devices/vfio.rst
+++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/devices/vfio.rst
@@ -9,22 +9,34 @@ Device types supported:
   - KVM_DEV_TYPE_VFIO
 
 Only one VFIO instance may be created per VM.  The created device
-tracks VFIO groups in use by the VM and features of those groups
-important to the correctness and acceleration of the VM.  As groups
-are enabled and disabled for use by the VM, KVM should be updated
-about their presence.  When registered with KVM, a reference to the
-VFIO-group is held by KVM.
+tracks VFIO files (group or device) in use by the VM and features
+of those groups/devices important to the correctness and acceleration
+of the VM.  As groups/devices are enabled and disabled for use by the
+VM, KVM should be updated about their presence.  When registered with
+KVM, a reference to the VFIO file is held by KVM.
 
 Groups:
-  KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP
-
-KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP attributes:
-  KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_ADD: Add a VFIO group to VFIO-KVM device tracking
-	kvm_device_attr.addr points to an int32_t file descriptor
-	for the VFIO group.
-  KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_DEL: Remove a VFIO group from VFIO-KVM device tracking
-	kvm_device_attr.addr points to an int32_t file descriptor
-	for the VFIO group.
+  KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE
+	alias: KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP
+
+KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE attributes:
+  KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_ADD: Add a VFIO file (group/device) to VFIO-KVM device
+	tracking
+
+	kvm_device_attr.addr points to an int32_t file descriptor for the
+	VFIO file.
+
+  KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_DEL: Remove a VFIO file (group/device) from VFIO-KVM
+	device tracking
+
+	kvm_device_attr.addr points to an int32_t file descriptor for the
+	VFIO file.
+
+KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP (legacy kvm device group restricted to the handling of VFIO group fd):
+  KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_ADD: same as KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_ADD for group fd only
+
+  KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_DEL: same as KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_DEL for group fd only
+
   KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_SET_SPAPR_TCE: attaches a guest visible TCE table
 	allocated by sPAPR KVM.
 	kvm_device_attr.addr points to a struct::
@@ -40,7 +52,10 @@ KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP attributes:
 	- @tablefd is a file descriptor for a TCE table allocated via
 	  KVM_CREATE_SPAPR_TCE.
 
-The GROUP_ADD operation above should be invoked prior to accessing the
+The FILE/GROUP_ADD operation above should be invoked prior to accessing the
 device file descriptor via VFIO_GROUP_GET_DEVICE_FD in order to support
 drivers which require a kvm pointer to be set in their .open_device()
-callback.
+callback.  It is the same for device file descriptor via character device
+open which gets device access via VFIO_DEVICE_BIND_IOMMUFD.  For such file
+descriptors, FILE_ADD should be invoked before VFIO_DEVICE_BIND_IOMMUFD
+to support the drivers mentioned in prior sentence as well.
diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/kvm.h b/include/uapi/linux/kvm.h
index d77aef872a0a..7980c7533136 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/kvm.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/kvm.h
@@ -1410,9 +1410,16 @@ struct kvm_device_attr {
 	__u64	addr;		/* userspace address of attr data */
 };
 
-#define  KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP			1
-#define   KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_ADD			1
-#define   KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_DEL			2
+#define  KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE			1
+
+#define   KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_ADD			1
+#define   KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_DEL			2
+
+/* KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP aliases are for compile time uapi compatibility */
+#define  KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP	KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE
+
+#define   KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_ADD	KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_ADD
+#define   KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_DEL	KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_DEL
 #define   KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_SET_SPAPR_TCE		3
 
 enum kvm_device_type {
diff --git a/virt/kvm/vfio.c b/virt/kvm/vfio.c
index 8f7fa07e8170..10a3c7ccadf1 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/vfio.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/vfio.c
@@ -286,18 +286,18 @@ static int kvm_vfio_set_file(struct kvm_device *dev, long attr,
 	int32_t fd;
 
 	switch (attr) {
-	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_ADD:
+	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_ADD:
 		if (get_user(fd, argp))
 			return -EFAULT;
 		return kvm_vfio_file_add(dev, fd);
 
-	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_DEL:
+	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_DEL:
 		if (get_user(fd, argp))
 			return -EFAULT;
 		return kvm_vfio_file_del(dev, fd);
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_SPAPR_TCE_IOMMU
-	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_SET_SPAPR_TCE:
+	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_SET_SPAPR_TCE:
 		return kvm_vfio_file_set_spapr_tce(dev, arg);
 #endif
 	}
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@ static int kvm_vfio_set_attr(struct kvm_device *dev,
 			     struct kvm_device_attr *attr)
 {
 	switch (attr->group) {
-	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP:
+	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE:
 		return kvm_vfio_set_file(dev, attr->attr,
 					 u64_to_user_ptr(attr->addr));
 	}
@@ -321,12 +321,12 @@ static int kvm_vfio_has_attr(struct kvm_device *dev,
 			     struct kvm_device_attr *attr)
 {
 	switch (attr->group) {
-	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP:
+	case KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE:
 		switch (attr->attr) {
-		case KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_ADD:
-		case KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_DEL:
+		case KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_ADD:
+		case KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_DEL:
 #ifdef CONFIG_SPAPR_TCE_IOMMU
-		case KVM_DEV_VFIO_GROUP_SET_SPAPR_TCE:
+		case KVM_DEV_VFIO_FILE_SET_SPAPR_TCE:
 #endif
 			return 0;
 		}
