diff --git a/src/libvirt_private.syms b/src/libvirt_private.syms
index fc749e76c3e8132070a91916b86d24a29e1b5965..a34d92f5ef91ac750aaba88e61206f0e57dda233 100644
--- a/src/libvirt_private.syms
+++ b/src/libvirt_private.syms
@@ -2702,7 +2702,6 @@ virPCIDeviceSetStubDriver;
 virPCIDeviceSetUnbindFromStub;
 virPCIDeviceSetUsedBy;
 virPCIDeviceUnbind;
-virPCIDeviceWaitForCleanup;
 virPCIEDeviceInfoFree;
 virPCIELinkSpeedTypeFromString;
 virPCIELinkSpeedTypeToString;
diff --git a/src/util/virpci.c b/src/util/virpci.c
index 9c9ffa55c27965b27309b70e4221294a7baaa770..ea5be620336ffcc4e2db46402b33b44c8781589f 100644
--- a/src/util/virpci.c
+++ b/src/util/virpci.c
@@ -1552,114 +1552,6 @@ virPCIDeviceReattach(virPCIDevicePtr dev,
     return 0;
 }
 
-/* Certain hypervisors (like qemu/kvm) map the PCI bar(s) on
- * the host when doing device passthrough.  This can lead to a race
- * condition where the hypervisor is still cleaning up the device while
- * libvirt is trying to re-attach it to the host device driver.  To avoid
- * this situation, we look through /proc/iomem, and if the hypervisor is
- * still holding on to the bar (denoted by the string in the matcher
- * variable), then we can wait around a bit for that to clear up.
- *
- * A typical /proc/iomem looks like this (snipped for brevity):
- * 00010000-0008efff : System RAM
- * 0008f000-0008ffff : reserved
- * ...
- * 00100000-cc9fcfff : System RAM
- *   00200000-00483d3b : Kernel code
- *   00483d3c-005c88df : Kernel data
- * cc9fd000-ccc71fff : ACPI Non-volatile Storage
- * ...
- * d0200000-d02fffff : PCI Bus #05
- *   d0200000-d021ffff : 0000:05:00.0
- *     d0200000-d021ffff : e1000e
- *   d0220000-d023ffff : 0000:05:00.0
- *     d0220000-d023ffff : e1000e
- * ...
- * f0000000-f0003fff : 0000:00:1b.0
- *   f0000000-f0003fff : kvm_assigned_device
- *
- * Returns 0 if we are clear to continue, and 1 if the hypervisor is still
- * holding on to the resource.
- */
-int
-virPCIDeviceWaitForCleanup(virPCIDevicePtr dev, const char *matcher)
-{
-    FILE *fp;
-    char line[160];
-    char *tmp;
-    unsigned long long start, end;
-    unsigned int domain, bus, slot, function;
-    bool in_matching_device;
-    int ret;
-    size_t match_depth;
-
-    fp = fopen("/proc/iomem", "r");
-    if (!fp) {
-        /* If we failed to open iomem, we just basically ignore the error.  The
-         * unbind might succeed anyway, and besides, it's very likely we have
-         * no way to report the error
-         */
-        VIR_DEBUG("Failed to open /proc/iomem, trying to continue anyway");
-        return 0;
-    }
-
-    ret = 0;
-    in_matching_device = false;
-    match_depth = 0;
-    while (fgets(line, sizeof(line), fp) != 0) {
-        /* the logic here is a bit confusing.  For each line, we look to
-         * see if it matches the domain:bus:slot.function we were given.
-         * If this line matches the DBSF, then any subsequent lines indented
-         * by 2 spaces are the PCI regions for this device.  It's also
-         * possible that none of the PCI regions are currently mapped, in
-         * which case we have no indented regions.  This code handles all
-         * of these situations
-         */
-        if (in_matching_device && (strspn(line, " ") == (match_depth + 2))) {
-            /* expected format: <start>-<end> : <suffix> */
-            if (/* start */
-                virStrToLong_ull(line, &tmp, 16, &start) < 0 || *tmp != '-' ||
-                /* end */
-                virStrToLong_ull(tmp + 1, &tmp, 16, &end) < 0 ||
-                (tmp = STRSKIP(tmp, " : ")) == NULL)
-                continue;
-
-            if (STRPREFIX(tmp, matcher)) {
-                ret = 1;
-                break;
-            }
-        } else {
-            in_matching_device = false;
-
-            /* expected format: <start>-<end> : <domain>:<bus>:<slot>.<function> */
-            if (/* start */
-                virStrToLong_ull(line, &tmp, 16, &start) < 0 || *tmp != '-' ||
-                /* end */
-                virStrToLong_ull(tmp + 1, &tmp, 16, &end) < 0 ||
-                (tmp = STRSKIP(tmp, " : ")) == NULL ||
-                /* domain */
-                virStrToLong_ui(tmp, &tmp, 16, &domain) < 0 || *tmp != ':' ||
-                /* bus */
-                virStrToLong_ui(tmp + 1, &tmp, 16, &bus) < 0 || *tmp != ':' ||
-                /* slot */
-                virStrToLong_ui(tmp + 1, &tmp, 16, &slot) < 0 || *tmp != '.' ||
-                /* function */
-                virStrToLong_ui(tmp + 1, &tmp, 16, &function) < 0 || *tmp != '\n')
-                continue;
-
-            if (domain != dev->address.domain || bus != dev->address.bus ||
-                slot != dev->address.slot || function != dev->address.function)
-                continue;
-            in_matching_device = true;
-            match_depth = strspn(line, " ");
-        }
-    }
-
-    VIR_FORCE_FCLOSE(fp);
-
-    return ret;
-}
-
 static char *
 virPCIDeviceReadID(virPCIDevicePtr dev, const char *id_name)
 {
diff --git a/src/util/virpci.h b/src/util/virpci.h
index 4ac0d230a467e8bfdb6135bbe2b1658d67eba8e3..dc20f9171025e891ec175c8b7ff1a59686dd0adb 100644
--- a/src/util/virpci.h
+++ b/src/util/virpci.h
@@ -197,7 +197,6 @@ char *virPCIDeviceGetIOMMUGroupDev(virPCIDevicePtr dev);
 
 int virPCIDeviceIsAssignable(virPCIDevicePtr dev,
                              int strict_acs_check);
-int virPCIDeviceWaitForCleanup(virPCIDevicePtr dev, const char *matcher);
 
 virPCIDeviceAddressPtr
 virPCIGetDeviceAddressFromSysfsLink(const char *device_link);