That pile is the first part of dealing with livelocks, etc. around shrink_dcache_parent(). The following changes since commit 60cc43fc888428bb2f18f08997432d426a243338: Linux 4.17-rc1 (2018-04-15 18:24:20 -0700) are available in the git repository at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs.git work.dcache for you to fetch changes up to 4fb48871409e2fcd375087d526d07f7600c88f94: restore cond_resched() in shrink_dcache_parent() (2018-04-19 23:58:48 -0400) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Al Viro (5): d_invalidate(): unhash immediately d_walk(): kill 'finish' callback dcache: move cond_resched() into the end of __dentry_kill() dput(): turn into explicit while() loop restore cond_resched() in shrink_dcache_parent() fs/dcache.c | 122 +++++++++++++++++++++--------------------------------------- 1 file changed, 43 insertions(+), 79 deletions(-)