diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
index 47499a1742bd..30c61474dec5 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
@@ -38,6 +38,11 @@ requests.  ``aio-max-nr`` allows you to change the maximum value
 ``aio-max-nr`` does not result in the
 pre-allocation or re-sizing of any kernel data structures.
 
+dentry-negative
+----------------------------
+
+Policy for negative dentries. Set to 1 to to always delete the dentry when a
+file is removed, and 0 to disable it. By default, this behavior is disabled.
 
 dentry-state
 ------------
diff --git a/fs/dcache.c b/fs/dcache.c
index 0f6b16ba30d0..0d7d1bfa23bd 100644
--- a/fs/dcache.c
+++ b/fs/dcache.c
@@ -135,6 +135,7 @@ struct dentry_stat_t {
 static DEFINE_PER_CPU(long, nr_dentry);
 static DEFINE_PER_CPU(long, nr_dentry_unused);
 static DEFINE_PER_CPU(long, nr_dentry_negative);
+static int dentry_negative_policy;
 
 #if defined(CONFIG_SYSCTL) && defined(CONFIG_PROC_FS)
 /* Statistics gathering. */
@@ -199,6 +200,15 @@ static struct ctl_table fs_dcache_sysctls[] = {
 		.mode		= 0444,
 		.proc_handler	= proc_nr_dentry,
 	},
+	{
+		.procname	= "dentry-negative",
+		.data		= &dentry_negative_policy,
+		.maxlen		= sizeof(dentry_negative_policy),
+		.mode		= 0644,
+		.proc_handler	= proc_dointvec_minmax,
+		.extra1		= SYSCTL_ZERO,
+		.extra2		= SYSCTL_ONE,
+	},
 };
 
 static int __init init_fs_dcache_sysctls(void)
@@ -2401,6 +2411,8 @@ void d_delete(struct dentry * dentry)
 	 * Are we the only user?
 	 */
 	if (dentry->d_lockref.count == 1) {
+		if (dentry_negative_policy)
+			__d_drop(dentry);
 		dentry->d_flags &= ~DCACHE_CANT_MOUNT;
 		dentry_unlink_inode(dentry);
 	} else {