diff --git a/fs/exportfs/expfs.c b/fs/exportfs/expfs.c
index 207ba8d627ca..a4b531be9168 100644
--- a/fs/exportfs/expfs.c
+++ b/fs/exportfs/expfs.c
@@ -428,10 +428,10 @@ struct dentry *exportfs_decode_fh(struct vfsmount *mnt, struct fid *fid,
 	if (!nop || !nop->fh_to_dentry)
 		return ERR_PTR(-ESTALE);
 	result = nop->fh_to_dentry(mnt->mnt_sb, fid, fh_len, fileid_type);
-	if (!result)
-		result = ERR_PTR(-ESTALE);
-	if (IS_ERR(result))
-		return result;
+	if (PTR_ERR(result) == -ENOMEM)
+		return ERR_CAST(result);
+	if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(result))
+		return ERR_PTR(-ESTALE);
 
 	if (d_is_dir(result)) {
 		/*
@@ -541,6 +541,8 @@ struct dentry *exportfs_decode_fh(struct vfsmount *mnt, struct fid *fid,
 
  err_result:
 	dput(result);
+	if (err != -ENOMEM)
+		err = -ESTALE;
 	return ERR_PTR(err);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(exportfs_decode_fh);
diff --git a/include/linux/exportfs.h b/include/linux/exportfs.h
index b03c0625fa6e..5ab958cdc50b 100644
--- a/include/linux/exportfs.h
+++ b/include/linux/exportfs.h
@@ -157,12 +157,13 @@ struct fid {
  *    @fh_to_dentry is given a &struct super_block (@sb) and a file handle
  *    fragment (@fh, @fh_len). It should return a &struct dentry which refers
  *    to the same file that the file handle fragment refers to.  If it cannot,
- *    it should return a %NULL pointer if the file was found but no acceptable
- *    &dentries were available, or an %ERR_PTR error code indicating why it
- *    couldn't be found (e.g. %ENOENT or %ENOMEM).  Any suitable dentry can be
- *    returned including, if necessary, a new dentry created with d_alloc_root.
- *    The caller can then find any other extant dentries by following the
- *    d_alias links.
+ *    it should return a %NULL pointer if the file cannot be found, or an
+ *    %ERR_PTR error code of %ENOMEM if a memory allocation failure occurred.
+ *    Any other error code is treated like %NULL, and will cause an %ESTALE error
+ *    for callers of exportfs_decode_fh().
+ *    Any suitable dentry can be returned including, if necessary, a new dentry
+ *    created with d_alloc_root.  The caller can then find any other extant
+ *    dentries by following the d_alias links.
  *
  * fh_to_parent:
  *    Same as @fh_to_dentry, except that it returns a pointer to the parent