diff --git a/include/linux/writeback.h b/include/linux/writeback.h
index fc35e6b..0c78f7f 100644
--- a/include/linux/writeback.h
+++ b/include/linux/writeback.h
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@
 int wakeup_pdflush(long nr_pages);
 void laptop_io_completion(void);
 void laptop_sync_completion(void);
-void throttle_vm_writeout(void);
+void throttle_vm_writeout(gfp_t gfp_mask);
 
 /* These are exported to sysctl. */
 extern int dirty_background_ratio;
diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index f7e088f..f469e3c 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -296,11 +296,21 @@
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr);
 
-void throttle_vm_writeout(void)
+void throttle_vm_writeout(gfp_t gfp_mask)
 {
 	long background_thresh;
 	long dirty_thresh;
 
+	if ((gfp_mask & (__GFP_FS|__GFP_IO)) != (__GFP_FS|__GFP_IO)) {
+		/*
+		 * The caller might hold locks which can prevent IO completion
+		 * or progress in the filesystem.  So we cannot just sit here
+		 * waiting for IO to complete.
+		 */
+		congestion_wait(WRITE, HZ/10);
+		return;
+	}
+
         for ( ; ; ) {
 		get_dirty_limits(&background_thresh, &dirty_thresh, NULL);
 
@@ -317,7 +327,6 @@
         }
 }
 
-
 /*
  * writeback at least _min_pages, and keep writing until the amount of dirty
  * memory is less than the background threshold, or until we're all clean.
diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
index 0655d5f..db023e2 100644
--- a/mm/vmscan.c
+++ b/mm/vmscan.c
@@ -952,7 +952,7 @@
 		}
 	}
 
-	throttle_vm_writeout();
+	throttle_vm_writeout(sc->gfp_mask);
 
 	atomic_dec(&zone->reclaim_in_progress);
 	return nr_reclaimed;