The locking around the ->get_parent() call brings no value. We are locking a child which is only used to find an inode and thence the parent inode number. All further activity involves the parent inode which may have several children so locking one child cannot protect the parent in any useful way. The filesystem must already ensure that only one 'struct inode' exists for a given inode, and will call d_obtain_alias() which contains the required locking to ensure only one dentry will be attached to that inode. So remove the unnecessary locking. Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <neil@xxxxxxxxxx> --- I've been reviewing locking in directories and this stood out has unnecessary. It isn't harmful, but it doesn't bring any value. NeilBrown fs/exportfs/expfs.c | 2 -- 1 file changed, 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/fs/exportfs/expfs.c b/fs/exportfs/expfs.c index 0c899cfba578..b5845c4846b8 100644 --- a/fs/exportfs/expfs.c +++ b/fs/exportfs/expfs.c @@ -126,10 +126,8 @@ static struct dentry *reconnect_one(struct vfsmount *mnt, int err; parent = ERR_PTR(-EACCES); - inode_lock(dentry->d_inode); if (mnt->mnt_sb->s_export_op->get_parent) parent = mnt->mnt_sb->s_export_op->get_parent(dentry); - inode_unlock(dentry->d_inode); if (IS_ERR(parent)) { dprintk("get_parent of %lu failed, err %ld\n", -- 2.48.1