if path_lookup() return non zero code we don't have to worry about 'nd' parameter, but ecryptfs_read_super does path_release(&nd) after path_lookup has failed, and dentry counter becomes negative :) , this result in folowing BUG ecryptfs_read_super: path_lookup() failed BUG: Dentry f3f074c4{i=0,n=enc_dir} still in use (-1) [unmount of ext3 dm-5] <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<] Not tainted VLI EFLAGS: 00210292 (2.6.20-mm2-g0cb8e157-dirty #10) EIP is at shrink_dcache_for_umount_subtree+0x159/0x1fb eax: 0000004b ebx: f3f074c4 ecx: c0122e78 edx: f7612070 esi: ffffffff edi: f3f0753c ebp: f4269cac esp: f4269c7c ds: 007b es: 007b fs: 00d8 gs: 0033 ss: 0068 Process mount.ecryptfs (pid: 4236, ti=f4268000 task=f7612070 task.ti=f4268000) Stack: c04f9dee f3f074c4 00000000 f3f0753c ffffffff c04fd617 f5161e30 00000000 00000000 f5161c00 c043b780 f4269d98 f4269cb8 c0183f5f f5161c00 f4269cd0 c0176166 f4269cc8 c022cb90 f705fcc0 f5161c00 f4269ce0 c017622c f5161c00 Call Trace: [] show_trace_log_lvl+0x1a/0x2f [] show_stack_log_lvl+0x9b/0xaa [] show_registers+0x1b8/0x289 [] die+0x11e/0x233 [] do_trap+0x8a/0xa3 [] do_invalid_op+0x97/0xa1 [] error_code+0x7c/0x84 [] shrink_dcache_for_umount+0x2d/0x3a [] generic_shutdown_super+0x18/0xbe [] kill_block_super+0x20/0x32 [] deactivate_super+0x3f/0x51 [] mntput_no_expire+0x42/0x6b [] path_release+0x20/0x23 [] ecryptfs_get_sb+0x45a/0x4ad [ecryptfs] [] vfs_kern_mount+0x81/0xf1 [] do_kern_mount+0x30/0x42 [] do_mount+0x601/0x678 [] sys_mount+0x6f/0xa9 [] sysenter_past_esp+0x5d/0x99 ======================= Code: 30 02 00 00 89 44 24 18 8b 45 ec 89 4c 24 14 89 74 24 10 89 7c 24 0c 89 5c 24 04 89 44 24 08 c7 04 24 ee 9d 4f c0 e8 b7 74 fa ff <0f> 0b eb fe 8b 73 30 39 de 75 04 31 f6 eb 03 f0 ff 0e 8d 43 48 EIP: [] shrink_dcache_for_umount_subtree+0x159/0x1fb SS:ESP 0068:f4269c7c This is easy to reproduce just try to mount ecryptfs to nonexisting lower path # mount -tecryptfs private/this_dir_not_exist root -ocipher=aes Signed-off-by: Dmitriy Monakhov -------------