diff --git a/fs/inode.c b/fs/inode.c
index ecbb68dc7e2aef9bbf52d0b94c0dd401a7d50bae..ee4e66b998f40d170b1822db68875df73d445db6 100644
--- a/fs/inode.c
+++ b/fs/inode.c
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ int inode_init_always(struct super_block *sb, struct inode *inode)
 	atomic_set(&inode->i_count, 1);
 	inode->i_op = &empty_iops;
 	inode->i_fop = &empty_fops;
-	inode->i_nlink = 1;
+	inode->__i_nlink = 1;
 	inode->i_opflags = 0;
 	inode->i_uid = 0;
 	inode->i_gid = 0;
diff --git a/include/linux/fs.h b/include/linux/fs.h
index 48c1f5fc74117b683382bd6e8205975e464e7be2..23467d768cabcbae764be65bb558e2d53d9c5651 100644
--- a/include/linux/fs.h
+++ b/include/linux/fs.h
@@ -768,7 +768,17 @@ struct inode {
 
 	/* Stat data, not accessed from path walking */
 	unsigned long		i_ino;
-	unsigned int		i_nlink;
+	/*
+	 * Filesystems may only read i_nlink directly.  They shall use the
+	 * following functions for modification:
+	 *
+	 *    (set|clear|inc|drop)_nlink
+	 *    inode_(inc|dec)_link_count
+	 */
+	union {
+		const unsigned int i_nlink;
+		unsigned int __i_nlink;
+	};
 	dev_t			i_rdev;
 	loff_t			i_size;
 	struct timespec		i_atime;
@@ -1764,7 +1774,7 @@ static inline void mark_inode_dirty_sync(struct inode *inode)
  */
 static inline void set_nlink(struct inode *inode, unsigned int nlink)
 {
-	inode->i_nlink = nlink;
+	inode->__i_nlink = nlink;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -1777,7 +1787,7 @@ static inline void set_nlink(struct inode *inode, unsigned int nlink)
  */
 static inline void inc_nlink(struct inode *inode)
 {
-	inode->i_nlink++;
+	inode->__i_nlink++;
 }
 
 static inline void inode_inc_link_count(struct inode *inode)
@@ -1799,7 +1809,7 @@ static inline void inode_inc_link_count(struct inode *inode)
  */
 static inline void drop_nlink(struct inode *inode)
 {
-	inode->i_nlink--;
+	inode->__i_nlink--;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -1812,7 +1822,7 @@ static inline void drop_nlink(struct inode *inode)
  */
 static inline void clear_nlink(struct inode *inode)
 {
-	inode->i_nlink = 0;
+	inode->__i_nlink = 0;
 }
 
 static inline void inode_dec_link_count(struct inode *inode)