cuFile API
Type: API Tags: NVIDIA, CUDA, cuFile, GPUDirect Storage, GDS, storage, IO, API Related: GPU-Direct-Storage, GPUDirect-RDMA, CUDA-Programming-Guide, NVIDIA-Certified-Storage, NVIDIA-AI-Data-Platform, cuDF, NVIDIA-DALI Sources: https://docs.nvidia.com/gpudirect-storage/api-reference-guide/index.html, https://docs.nvidia.com/gpudirect-storage/index.html Last Updated: 2026-04-29
Summary
cuFile is the API surface for NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage. It lets applications register GPU buffers, register file handles, and submit direct storage I/O operations so data can move between storage and GPU memory with less CPU staging.
Detail
Purpose
Storage I/O can bottleneck training, analytics, checkpointing, and inference workloads. cuFile exposes the GPUDirect Storage programming interface so applications can integrate direct GPU/storage data paths rather than relying only on POSIX reads into CPU memory.
API role
- File handle registration and deregistration.
- GPU buffer registration and deregistration.
- Read/write operations between files and GPU memory.
- Configuration and status interfaces for GDS deployments.
- Used by higher-level frameworks and libraries when they add direct GPU storage I/O support.
NVIDIA context
This page is the API companion to GPU-Direct-Storage. It should be linked from storage-heavy pages such as NVIDIA-Certified-Storage, NVIDIA-AI-Data-Platform, cuDF, and NVIDIA-DALI.
Connections
- GPU-Direct-Storage - cuFile is the GDS API reference surface.
- GPUDirect-RDMA - related GPUDirect peer-to-peer data path for network adapters.
- CUDA-Programming-Guide - CUDA memory and runtime behavior around GPU buffers.
- NVIDIA-Certified-Storage - validated storage platforms may use GDS/cuFile paths.
- NVIDIA-AI-Data-Platform - AI data platforms need high-throughput storage-to-GPU movement.
- cuDF and NVIDIA-DALI - data ingestion libraries that can benefit from GDS-backed I/O.
Source Excerpts
- NVIDIA’s GDS cuFile API Reference documents file/buffer registration, I/O calls, configuration, and status APIs for GPUDirect Storage.