diff --git a/fs/internal.h b/fs/internal.h
index 8a9f5fa840f1..a6fd56c68b11 100644
--- a/fs/internal.h
+++ b/fs/internal.h
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ static inline int __sync_blockdev(struct block_device *bdev, int wait)
  */
 extern void __init chrdev_init(void);
 
+/*
+ * namei.c
+ */
+extern int __inode_permission(struct inode *, int);
+
 /*
  * namespace.c
  */
diff --git a/fs/namei.c b/fs/namei.c
index c6dcb4c8f86c..1b6474687698 100644
--- a/fs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/namei.c
@@ -315,31 +315,22 @@ static inline int do_inode_permission(struct inode *inode, int mask)
 }
 
 /**
- * inode_permission  -  check for access rights to a given inode
- * @inode:	inode to check permission on
- * @mask:	right to check for (%MAY_READ, %MAY_WRITE, %MAY_EXEC, ...)
+ * __inode_permission - Check for access rights to a given inode
+ * @inode: Inode to check permission on
+ * @mask: Right to check for (%MAY_READ, %MAY_WRITE, %MAY_EXEC)
  *
- * Used to check for read/write/execute permissions on an inode.
- * We use "fsuid" for this, letting us set arbitrary permissions
- * for filesystem access without changing the "normal" uids which
- * are used for other things.
+ * Check for read/write/execute permissions on an inode.
  *
  * When checking for MAY_APPEND, MAY_WRITE must also be set in @mask.
+ *
+ * This does not check for a read-only file system.  You probably want
+ * inode_permission().
  */
-int inode_permission(struct inode *inode, int mask)
+int __inode_permission(struct inode *inode, int mask)
 {
 	int retval;
 
 	if (unlikely(mask & MAY_WRITE)) {
-		umode_t mode = inode->i_mode;
-
-		/*
-		 * Nobody gets write access to a read-only fs.
-		 */
-		if (IS_RDONLY(inode) &&
-		    (S_ISREG(mode) || S_ISDIR(mode) || S_ISLNK(mode)))
-			return -EROFS;
-
 		/*
 		 * Nobody gets write access to an immutable file.
 		 */
@@ -358,6 +349,47 @@ int inode_permission(struct inode *inode, int mask)
 	return security_inode_permission(inode, mask);
 }
 
+/**
+ * sb_permission - Check superblock-level permissions
+ * @sb: Superblock of inode to check permission on
+ * @mask: Right to check for (%MAY_READ, %MAY_WRITE, %MAY_EXEC)
+ *
+ * Separate out file-system wide checks from inode-specific permission checks.
+ */
+static int sb_permission(struct super_block *sb, struct inode *inode, int mask)
+{
+	if (unlikely(mask & MAY_WRITE)) {
+		umode_t mode = inode->i_mode;
+
+		/* Nobody gets write access to a read-only fs. */
+		if ((sb->s_flags & MS_RDONLY) &&
+		    (S_ISREG(mode) || S_ISDIR(mode) || S_ISLNK(mode)))
+			return -EROFS;
+	}
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * inode_permission - Check for access rights to a given inode
+ * @inode: Inode to check permission on
+ * @mask: Right to check for (%MAY_READ, %MAY_WRITE, %MAY_EXEC)
+ *
+ * Check for read/write/execute permissions on an inode.  We use fs[ug]id for
+ * this, letting us set arbitrary permissions for filesystem access without
+ * changing the "normal" UIDs which are used for other things.
+ *
+ * When checking for MAY_APPEND, MAY_WRITE must also be set in @mask.
+ */
+int inode_permission(struct inode *inode, int mask)
+{
+	int retval;
+
+	retval = sb_permission(inode->i_sb, inode, mask);
+	if (retval)
+		return retval;
+	return __inode_permission(inode, mask);
+}
+
 /**
  * path_get - get a reference to a path
  * @path: path to get the reference to