if (file->private_data)
                btrfs_ioctl_trans_end(file);
 
+       /*
+        * We use start here because we will need to wait on the IO to complete
+        * in btrfs_sync_log, which could require joining a transaction (for
+        * example checking cross references in the nocow path).  If we use join
+        * here we could get into a situation where we're waiting on IO to
+        * happen that is blocked on a transaction trying to commit.  With start
+        * we inc the extwriter counter, so we wait for all extwriters to exit
+        * before we start blocking join'ers.  This comment is to keep somebody
+        * from thinking they are super smart and changing this to
+        * btrfs_join_transaction *cough*Josef*cough*.
+        */
        trans = btrfs_start_transaction(root, 0);
        if (IS_ERR(trans)) {
                ret = PTR_ERR(trans);
                mutex_unlock(&inode->i_mutex);
                goto out;
        }
+       trans->sync = true;
 
        ret = btrfs_log_dentry_safe(trans, root, dentry);
        if (ret < 0) {
 
        h->type = type;
        h->allocating_chunk = false;
        h->reloc_reserved = false;
+       h->sync = false;
        INIT_LIST_HEAD(&h->qgroup_ref_list);
        INIT_LIST_HEAD(&h->new_bgs);
 
                btrfs_create_pending_block_groups(trans, root);
 
        trans->delayed_ref_updates = 0;
-       if (btrfs_should_throttle_delayed_refs(trans, root)) {
+       if (!trans->sync && btrfs_should_throttle_delayed_refs(trans, root)) {
                cur = max_t(unsigned long, cur, 1);
                trans->delayed_ref_updates = 0;
                btrfs_run_delayed_refs(trans, root, cur);