diff --git a/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_bmap.c b/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_bmap.c
index 32aeacf6f055abdffb5f747ebb91c8481a6d4c5f..6c8f17a0e247cd41b749bcf356f21e67b0d56aef 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_bmap.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/libxfs/xfs_bmap.c
@@ -5151,6 +5151,24 @@ xfs_bmap_del_extent_real(
 		/*
 		 * Deleting the middle of the extent.
 		 */
+
+		/*
+		 * For directories, -ENOSPC is returned since a directory entry
+		 * remove operation must not fail due to low extent count
+		 * availability. -ENOSPC will be handled by higher layers of XFS
+		 * by letting the corresponding empty Data/Free blocks to linger
+		 * until a future remove operation. Dabtree blocks would be
+		 * swapped with the last block in the leaf space and then the
+		 * new last block will be unmapped.
+		 */
+		error = xfs_iext_count_may_overflow(ip, whichfork, 1);
+		if (error) {
+			ASSERT(S_ISDIR(VFS_I(ip)->i_mode) &&
+				whichfork == XFS_DATA_FORK);
+			error = -ENOSPC;
+			goto done;
+		}
+
 		old = got;
 
 		got.br_blockcount = del->br_startoff - got.br_startoff;