diff --git a/include/linux/sunrpc/sched.h b/include/linux/sunrpc/sched.h
index 97c761652581a722b7872bab49445e37521a8ea7..8b6ce60ea0578f0284e74029f507b8f224831e85 100644
--- a/include/linux/sunrpc/sched.h
+++ b/include/linux/sunrpc/sched.h
@@ -250,7 +250,6 @@ void		rpc_init_task(struct rpc_task *task, struct rpc_clnt *clnt,
 				int flags, const struct rpc_call_ops *ops,
 				void *data);
 void		rpc_put_task(struct rpc_task *);
-void		rpc_release_task(struct rpc_task *);
 void		rpc_exit_task(struct rpc_task *);
 void		rpc_release_calldata(const struct rpc_call_ops *, void *);
 void		rpc_killall_tasks(struct rpc_clnt *);
diff --git a/net/sunrpc/clnt.c b/net/sunrpc/clnt.c
index aba528b9ae769a8aa0fb5b5ece07ff704dab2291..16c9fbc1db6995e059ec263aa02449f912bd3942 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/clnt.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/clnt.c
@@ -490,16 +490,14 @@ int rpc_call_sync(struct rpc_clnt *clnt, struct rpc_message *msg, int flags)
 
 	/* Set up the call info struct and execute the task */
 	status = task->tk_status;
-	if (status != 0) {
-		rpc_release_task(task);
+	if (status != 0)
 		goto out;
-	}
 	atomic_inc(&task->tk_count);
 	status = rpc_execute(task);
 	if (status == 0)
 		status = task->tk_status;
-	rpc_put_task(task);
 out:
+	rpc_put_task(task);
 	rpc_restore_sigmask(&oldset);
 	return status;
 }
@@ -537,7 +535,7 @@ rpc_call_async(struct rpc_clnt *clnt, struct rpc_message *msg, int flags,
 	if (status == 0)
 		rpc_execute(task);
 	else
-		rpc_release_task(task);
+		rpc_put_task(task);
 
 	rpc_restore_sigmask(&oldset);		
 	return status;
diff --git a/net/sunrpc/sched.c b/net/sunrpc/sched.c
index 79bc4cdf5d4861e70c2614012dfbec35d7409e72..fc083f0b354434940b98aa27e882f9d4bef8bfe6 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/sched.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/sched.c
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ static mempool_t	*rpc_buffer_mempool __read_mostly;
 static void			__rpc_default_timer(struct rpc_task *task);
 static void			rpciod_killall(void);
 static void			rpc_async_schedule(struct work_struct *);
+static void			 rpc_release_task(struct rpc_task *task);
 
 /*
  * RPC tasks sit here while waiting for conditions to improve.
@@ -896,7 +897,7 @@ void rpc_put_task(struct rpc_task *task)
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(rpc_put_task);
 
-void rpc_release_task(struct rpc_task *task)
+static void rpc_release_task(struct rpc_task *task)
 {
 #ifdef RPC_DEBUG
 	BUG_ON(task->tk_magic != RPC_TASK_MAGIC_ID);