diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
index 580ab9a0fe31..fa3faeeab727 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
@@ -581,7 +581,10 @@ checks for this directory and refuses to mount if present. This is a strong
 indicator that user should throw away upper and work directories and create
 fresh one. In very limited cases where the user knows that the system has
 not crashed and contents of upperdir are intact, The "volatile" directory
-can be removed.
+can be removed.  In certain cases it the filesystem can detect that the
+upperdir can be reused safely, and it will not require the user to
+manually delete the volatile directory.
+
 
 Testsuite
 ---------
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/overlayfs.h b/fs/overlayfs/overlayfs.h
index 9eb911f243e1..980d2c930f7a 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/overlayfs.h
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/overlayfs.h
@@ -30,6 +30,11 @@ enum ovl_path_type {
 #define OVL_XATTR_NLINK OVL_XATTR_PREFIX "nlink"
 #define OVL_XATTR_UPPER OVL_XATTR_PREFIX "upper"
 #define OVL_XATTR_METACOPY OVL_XATTR_PREFIX "metacopy"
+#define OVL_XATTR_VOLATILE OVL_XATTR_PREFIX "volatile"
+
+#define OVL_INCOMPATDIR_NAME "incompat"
+#define OVL_VOLATILEDIR_NAME "volatile"
+#define OVL_VOLATILE_DIRTY_NAME "dirty"
 
 enum ovl_inode_flag {
 	/* Pure upper dir that may contain non pure upper entries */
@@ -54,6 +59,32 @@ enum {
 	OVL_XINO_ON,
 };
 
+/*
+ * This is copied into the volatile xattr, and the user does not interact with
+ * it. There is no stability requirement, as a reboot explicitly invalidates
+ * a volatile workdir. It is explicitly meant not to be a stable api.
+ *
+ * Although this structure isn't meant to be stable it is exposed to potentially
+ * unprivileged users. We don't do any kind of cryptographic operations with
+ * the structure, so it could be tampered with, or inspected. Don't put
+ * kernel memory pointers in it, or anything else that could cause problems,
+ * or information disclosure.
+ */
+struct overlay_volatile_info {
+	/*
+	 * This uniquely identifies a boot, and is reset if overlayfs itself
+	 * is reloaded. Therefore we check our current / known boot_id
+	 * against this before looking at any other fields to validate:
+	 * 1. Is this datastructure laid out in the way we expect? (Overlayfs
+	 *    module, reboot, etc...)
+	 * 2. Could something have changed (like the s_instance_id counter
+	 *    resetting)
+	 */
+	uuid_t		overlay_boot_id;
+	u64		s_instance_id;
+	errseq_t	errseq; /* Just a u32 */
+} __packed;
+
 /*
  * The tuple (fh,uuid) is a universal unique identifier for a copy up origin,
  * where:
@@ -501,3 +532,6 @@ int ovl_set_origin(struct dentry *dentry, struct dentry *lower,
 
 /* export.c */
 extern const struct export_operations ovl_export_operations;
+
+/* super.c */
+extern uuid_t overlay_boot_id;
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
index f8cc15533afa..ee0d2b88a19c 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
@@ -1054,7 +1054,84 @@ int ovl_check_d_type_supported(struct path *realpath)
 	return rdd.d_type_supported;
 }
 
-#define OVL_INCOMPATDIR_NAME "incompat"
+static int ovl_check_incompat_volatile(struct ovl_cache_entry *p,
+				       struct path *path)
+{
+	int err, ret = -EINVAL;
+	struct overlay_volatile_info info;
+	struct dentry *d_volatile, *d_dirty;
+
+	d_volatile = lookup_one_len(p->name, path->dentry, p->len);
+	if (IS_ERR(d_volatile))
+		return PTR_ERR(d_volatile);
+
+	inode_lock_nested(d_volatile->d_inode, I_MUTEX_PARENT);
+	d_dirty = lookup_one_len(OVL_VOLATILE_DIRTY_NAME, d_volatile,
+				 strlen(OVL_VOLATILE_DIRTY_NAME));
+	if (IS_ERR(d_dirty)) {
+		err = PTR_ERR(d_dirty);
+		if (err != -ENOENT)
+			ret = err;
+		goto out_putvolatile;
+	}
+
+	if (!d_dirty->d_inode)
+		goto out_putdirty;
+
+	inode_lock_nested(d_dirty->d_inode, I_MUTEX_XATTR);
+	err = ovl_do_getxattr(d_dirty, OVL_XATTR_VOLATILE, &info, sizeof(info));
+	inode_unlock(d_dirty->d_inode);
+	if (err != sizeof(info))
+		goto out_putdirty;
+
+	if (!uuid_equal(&overlay_boot_id, &info.overlay_boot_id)) {
+		pr_debug("boot id has changed (reboot or module reloaded)\n");
+		goto out_putdirty;
+	}
+
+	if (d_dirty->d_inode->i_sb->s_instance_id != info.s_instance_id) {
+		pr_debug("workdir has been unmounted and remounted\n");
+		goto out_putdirty;
+	}
+
+	err = errseq_check(&d_dirty->d_inode->i_sb->s_wb_err, info.errseq);
+	if (err) {
+		pr_debug("workdir dir has experienced errors: %d\n", err);
+		goto out_putdirty;
+	}
+
+	/* Dirty file is okay, delete it. */
+	ret = ovl_do_unlink(d_volatile->d_inode, d_dirty);
+
+out_putdirty:
+	dput(d_dirty);
+out_putvolatile:
+	inode_unlock(d_volatile->d_inode);
+	dput(d_volatile);
+	return ret;
+}
+
+/*
+ * check_incompat checks this specific incompat entry for incompatibility.
+ * If it is found to be incompatible -EINVAL will be returned.
+ *
+ * Any other -errno indicates an unknown error, and filesystem mounting
+ * should be aborted.
+ */
+static int ovl_check_incompat(struct ovl_cache_entry *p, struct path *path)
+{
+	int err = -EINVAL;
+
+	if (!strcmp(p->name, OVL_VOLATILEDIR_NAME))
+		err = ovl_check_incompat_volatile(p, path);
+
+	if (err == -EINVAL)
+		pr_err("incompat feature '%s' cannot be mounted\n", p->name);
+	else
+		pr_debug("incompat '%s' handled: %d\n", p->name, err);
+
+	return err;
+}
 
 static int ovl_workdir_cleanup_recurse(struct path *path, int level)
 {
@@ -1098,10 +1175,9 @@ static int ovl_workdir_cleanup_recurse(struct path *path, int level)
 			if (p->len == 2 && p->name[1] == '.')
 				continue;
 		} else if (incompat) {
-			pr_err("overlay with incompat feature '%s' cannot be mounted\n",
-				p->name);
-			err = -EINVAL;
-			break;
+			err = ovl_check_incompat(p, path);
+			if (err)
+				break;
 		}
 		dentry = lookup_one_len(p->name, path->dentry, p->len);
 		if (IS_ERR(dentry))
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/super.c b/fs/overlayfs/super.c
index 2ee0ba16cc7b..94980898009f 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/super.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/super.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include <linux/seq_file.h>
 #include <linux/posix_acl_xattr.h>
 #include <linux/exportfs.h>
+#include <linux/uuid.h>
 #include "overlayfs.h"
 
 MODULE_AUTHOR("Miklos Szeredi <miklos@szeredi.hu>");
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@ MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
 
 
 struct ovl_dir_cache;
+uuid_t overlay_boot_id;
 
 #define OVL_MAX_STACK 500
 
@@ -1246,20 +1248,35 @@ static struct dentry *ovl_lookup_or_create(struct dentry *parent,
  */
 static int ovl_create_volatile_dirty(struct ovl_fs *ofs)
 {
+	int err;
 	unsigned int ctr;
 	struct dentry *d = dget(ofs->workbasedir);
 	static const char *const volatile_path[] = {
-		OVL_WORKDIR_NAME, "incompat", "volatile", "dirty"
+		OVL_WORKDIR_NAME,
+		OVL_INCOMPATDIR_NAME,
+		OVL_VOLATILEDIR_NAME,
+		OVL_VOLATILE_DIRTY_NAME,
 	};
 	const char *const *name = volatile_path;
+	struct overlay_volatile_info info = {};
 
 	for (ctr = ARRAY_SIZE(volatile_path); ctr; ctr--, name++) {
 		d = ovl_lookup_or_create(d, *name, ctr > 1 ? S_IFDIR : S_IFREG);
 		if (IS_ERR(d))
 			return PTR_ERR(d);
 	}
+
+	uuid_copy(&info.overlay_boot_id, &overlay_boot_id);
+	info.s_instance_id = d->d_inode->i_sb->s_instance_id;
+	info.errseq = errseq_sample(&d->d_inode->i_sb->s_wb_err);
+
+
+	err = ovl_do_setxattr(d, OVL_XATTR_VOLATILE, &info, sizeof(info), 0);
+	if (err == -EOPNOTSUPP)
+		err = 0;
+
 	dput(d);
-	return 0;
+	return err;
 }
 
 static int ovl_make_workdir(struct super_block *sb, struct ovl_fs *ofs,
@@ -2045,6 +2062,7 @@ static int __init ovl_init(void)
 {
 	int err;
 
+	uuid_gen(&overlay_boot_id);
 	ovl_inode_cachep = kmem_cache_create("ovl_inode",
 					     sizeof(struct ovl_inode), 0,
 					     (SLAB_RECLAIM_ACCOUNT|
