diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
index 4db3c0b7d71b33f96101e107e4fb3adceb1066e5..36c5d212bddec2a4546c3292d083d374c675472e 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_inode.c
@@ -2884,6 +2884,19 @@ xfs_remove(
 		error = xfs_droplink(tp, ip);
 		if (error)
 			goto out_trans_cancel;
+
+		/*
+		 * Point the unlinked child directory's ".." entry to the root
+		 * directory to eliminate back-references to inodes that may
+		 * get freed before the child directory is closed.  If the fs
+		 * gets shrunk, this can lead to dirent inode validation errors.
+		 */
+		if (dp->i_ino != tp->t_mountp->m_sb.sb_rootino) {
+			error = xfs_dir_replace(tp, ip, &xfs_name_dotdot,
+					tp->t_mountp->m_sb.sb_rootino, 0);
+			if (error)
+				return error;
+		}
 	} else {
 		/*
 		 * When removing a non-directory we need to log the parent