diff --git a/fs/ext3/ialloc.c b/fs/ext3/ialloc.c
index ba9186a21d1edff66d332815dacafd59483ee5d3..8de6c720e510910b0278c5c806e836494d783fd2 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/ialloc.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/ialloc.c
@@ -559,12 +559,8 @@ struct inode *ext3_new_inode(handle_t *handle, struct inode * dir, int mode)
 	ei->i_dir_start_lookup = 0;
 	ei->i_disksize = 0;
 
-	ei->i_flags = EXT3_I(dir)->i_flags & EXT3_FL_INHERITED;
-	if (S_ISLNK(mode))
-		ei->i_flags &= ~(EXT3_IMMUTABLE_FL|EXT3_APPEND_FL);
-	/* dirsync only applies to directories */
-	if (!S_ISDIR(mode))
-		ei->i_flags &= ~EXT3_DIRSYNC_FL;
+	ei->i_flags =
+		ext3_mask_flags(mode, EXT3_I(dir)->i_flags & EXT3_FL_INHERITED);
 #ifdef EXT3_FRAGMENTS
 	ei->i_faddr = 0;
 	ei->i_frag_no = 0;
diff --git a/fs/ext3/ioctl.c b/fs/ext3/ioctl.c
index b7394d05ee8e9e8261d2a6e8be983b83781d2211..5e86ce9a86e05b20d3ffe297dd4b9191fee08994 100644
--- a/fs/ext3/ioctl.c
+++ b/fs/ext3/ioctl.c
@@ -53,8 +53,7 @@ int ext3_ioctl (struct inode * inode, struct file * filp, unsigned int cmd,
 			goto flags_out;
 		}
 
-		if (!S_ISDIR(inode->i_mode))
-			flags &= ~EXT3_DIRSYNC_FL;
+		flags = ext3_mask_flags(inode->i_mode, flags);
 
 		mutex_lock(&inode->i_mutex);
 		/* Is it quota file? Do not allow user to mess with it */
diff --git a/include/linux/ext3_fs.h b/include/linux/ext3_fs.h
index b745619a9b8e9fecb993e47f5ee2fcf0596888cd..d76800f6ecf0fb927bf16f144fa6516f5ac62111 100644
--- a/include/linux/ext3_fs.h
+++ b/include/linux/ext3_fs.h
@@ -185,6 +185,23 @@ struct ext3_group_desc
 			   EXT3_NOCOMPR_FL | EXT3_JOURNAL_DATA_FL |\
 			   EXT3_NOTAIL_FL | EXT3_DIRSYNC_FL)
 
+/* Flags that are appropriate for regular files (all but dir-specific ones). */
+#define EXT3_REG_FLMASK (~(EXT3_DIRSYNC_FL | EXT3_TOPDIR_FL))
+
+/* Flags that are appropriate for non-directories/regular files. */
+#define EXT3_OTHER_FLMASK (EXT3_NODUMP_FL | EXT3_NOATIME_FL)
+
+/* Mask out flags that are inappropriate for the given type of inode. */
+static inline __u32 ext3_mask_flags(umode_t mode, __u32 flags)
+{
+	if (S_ISDIR(mode))
+		return flags;
+	else if (S_ISREG(mode))
+		return flags & EXT3_REG_FLMASK;
+	else
+		return flags & EXT3_OTHER_FLMASK;
+}
+
 /*
  * Inode dynamic state flags
  */