0x8c syscall_exit+0x0/0x4 Upon debugging I found that the restart_transaction was not releasing the path if the th->refcount was > 1. /*static*/ int restart_transaction(struct reiserfs_transaction_handle *th, struct inode *inode, struct path *path) { [...] /* we cannot restart while nested */ if (th->t_refcount > 1) { <<- Path is not released in this case! return 0; } pathrelse(path); <<- Path released here. [...] This could happen in such a situation : In reiserfs/inode.c: reiserfs_get_block() :: if (repeat == NO_DISK_SPACE || repeat == QUOTA_EXCEEDED) { /* restart the transaction to give the journal a chance to free ** some blocks. releases the path, so we have to go back to ** research if we succeed on the second try */ SB_JOURNAL(inode->i_sb)->j_next_async_flush = 1; -->> retval = restart_transaction(th, inode, &path); <<-- We are supposed to release the path, no matter we succeed or fail. But if the th->refcount is > 1, the path is still valid. And, if (retval) goto failure; repeat = _allocate_block(th, block, inode, &allocated_block_nr, NULL, create); If the above allocate_block fails with NO_DISK_SPACE or QUOTA_EXCEEDED, we would have path which is not released. if (repeat != NO_DISK_SPACE && repeat != QUOTA_EXCEEDED) { goto research; } if (repeat == QUOTA_EXCEEDED) retval = -EDQUOT; else retval = -ENOSPC; goto failure; [...] failure: [...] reiserfs_check_path(&path); << Panics here ! Attached here is a patch which could fix the issue. fix reiserfs/inode.c : restart_transaction() to release the path in all cases. The restart_transaction() doesn't release the path when the the journal handle has a refcount > 1. This would trigger a reiserfs_panic() if we encounter an -ENOSPC / -EDQUOT in reiserfs_get_block(). Signed-off-by: Suzuki K P Cc: "Vladimir V. Saveliev" Cc: Cc: Jeff Mahoney Acked-by: Jan Kara Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds +