diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.c
index dd5a664c294f..f5568fa54039 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_icache.c
@@ -1858,6 +1858,7 @@ xfs_inodegc_worker(
 						struct xfs_inodegc, work);
 	struct llist_node	*node = llist_del_all(&gc->list);
 	struct xfs_inode	*ip, *n;
+	unsigned int		nofs_flag;
 
 	ASSERT(gc->cpu == smp_processor_id());
 
@@ -1866,6 +1867,13 @@ xfs_inodegc_worker(
 	if (!node)
 		return;
 
+	/*
+	 * We can allocate memory here while doing writeback on behalf of
+	 * memory reclaim.  To avoid memory allocation deadlocks set the
+	 * task-wide nofs context for the following operations.
+	 */
+	nofs_flag = memalloc_nofs_save();
+
 	ip = llist_entry(node, struct xfs_inode, i_gclist);
 	trace_xfs_inodegc_worker(ip->i_mount, READ_ONCE(gc->shrinker_hits));
 
@@ -1874,6 +1882,8 @@ xfs_inodegc_worker(
 		xfs_iflags_set(ip, XFS_INACTIVATING);
 		xfs_inodegc_inactivate(ip);
 	}
+
+	memalloc_nofs_restore(nofs_flag);
 }
 
 /*